Richard Hood
“We don’t need condescending ‘thumb-twiddling’ pastimes. We need community, respect, rigor and real interaction on sophisticated levels with imaginative, involved people who expect us to be the same. This program gave us all of that,” declared Richard Hood, participant of Johnson City Public Library’s Seeding Vitality Arts® program. Richard, a retired literature professor, living alone in rural Greene County, Tennessee, heard about the Bird Sculpting class on his local NPR station and enrolled. After the class ended, Richard wrote this powerful letter about the value of the program.
“Loneliness is a chronic problem for the elderly, and, though I never would have dreamed I’d be one of the ‘lonely-aging,’ I turn-out to be a fairly typical example of the suddenly-solitary old geezer. After a long and happy career teaching, I suddenly found myself out of work (retired), out of family (my daughter moved to Texas, and I lost my wife), out of community contacts (I moved to Tennessee from Ohio to help-out my 100-year-old father) and basically out-of-life. I always cherished solitude; but I never realized how fine the line between solitude and loneliness could be.
“So I heard about this sculpting class, and forced myself to sign up for it. I’ve never taken an art class in my life, and I was in just the state of mind to turn up my nose at something called ‘Artful Aging.’ Nevertheless, I was pretty desperate, and this sounded doable.
“Well, the short version is that I met a bunch of vibrant, caring and creative people, with a teacher, Angelique, who knew just how to give us permission to try new things and how to steer us, gently, toward some actual technical knowledge. I found the class to be demanding and sophisticated in just the right way. . . It was no “Basket Weaving Time-Killer” course for people with nothing to do. It was a genuine art course that asked a lot, and gave a lot to a group of people who could handle it. I had expected—perhaps planned—to miss various sessions; but I went to every class, took work home and turned up on off-days almost every time Angelique was available. This, even though I am an hour’s drive away.
“My classmates are interesting, creative people, who gradually opened up a place for me to feel accepted, befriended and challenged to live up to their standards. It has always struck me that dear friends do more than ‘let you be yourself;’ they push you to be a better self, and they require you to engage in the world with them. This was exactly the kind of atmosphere, constantly, in this class. It was supposed to be ‘fun,’ but it was, in fact, fun because it mattered. (And, as a general truth, I think this is the only way we can attack this chronic loneliness in elders: provide a place where we can be taken seriously enough to have to work hard according to high standards. Don’t you think?)
“I have a new set of interests, a new community of people, a new interest in BEING a part of my community. Since our class ended, I have made three fairly major pieces based on what I have learned and I expect to keep doing this stuff . . . it is, in fact, FUN, in the finest sense of the word.” – Richard Hood, Student