community can save your life

So, without getting into too much detail, let's just say I had a rough week.  A few things that I was really hoping would work out did not, in fact, work out, and I was feeling kind of bummed.  Kicking the dirt a bit, as it were.  Speaking as I am presently, from the other side of that particularly murky river, I have to say:  If you are feeling down, and therefore feeling like retreating further and further into your cave, don't do it!  Get out of your house and engage in a community activity!  I assure you that it is the right thing to do, if you believe that the 'right' direction is toward the light.  I believe that it is. 

The event I went out and participated in tonight was the PoeARTry Playoffs at the Confederation Centre Art Gallery in Charlottetown.  The event was put on by the Art Gallery and the PEI Writer's Guild (who also have a great series of events - the Pen & Inkling Festival, Sept. 27-Oct.2.  The event was also part of a really wonderful alternative student orientation called Community Roots, which, hopefully will be a part of the fall fabric from now on here in PEI. 

Anyhow, the night was pretty darn great:  there were 4 teams, each with a team captain from UPEI,  an artist, a poet, and then two other team members chosen from the audience.  There were 4 rounds of stunts/challenges we had to perform, and then a panel of 2 judges who gave us a score.  We wrote haikus, created clay sculptures, and responded to exhibits with wu-tang style raps.  And it may be partly the adrenaline talking here since my team won (go Team A!), but boy did this event ever lift my spirits. 

I think that by nature we tend to retreat when we don't feel our best, but tonight was a great reminder that we're all in this together, we really are, and we need to support and uplift each other; to share our experiences; to be reminded that there is nothing we can feel that another human being somewhere has not also felt.  A sense of a larger community is long what the arts have been about, and it was so exciting to see that in action tonight.  All problems solved.  :)

sandbanks - monica lacey 2011