Page 15 - TheMoralOfYourStory

14 CHILDART THE MORAL OF YOUR STORY
KINDNESS MAKES THE
DIFFERENCE
AMY IONE Tackling
the task of
DIRECTOR
THE DIATROPE INSTITUTE constructing
BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA
my life didn’t
take a day, or
even a week, but
As a young child I didn’t really have a sense
of right and wrong, but because I was quiet, many people
shy, and studious, I rarely got into trouble. My
parents were busy and aside from going out
to dinner quite a bit, we didn’t do much as a helped me over
family. As a result, my guidance in good and bad
behavior came from school and summer camp. many years.
Beginning at age four, I went to overnight
camp for eight weeks every summer. Now Most of them
that I am an adult, I’m not sure if I am more
astonished by the fact that my parents did it without
decided to send me away for eight weeks
or by the fact that the camp was willing to
accept a child so young. I was the youngest realizing how
camper and my older sister, at six, was the
second youngest. At camp there were lots of much of a
rules. This translated into learning that some
things are right and others are wrong, but
I didn’t understand what a moral compass difference their
is or why our decisions make a difference.
School acclimated me to cultural mores kind gestures
but, again, being so quiet and studious, I
didn’t have an integral sense of how good made as I tried
and bad behavior differed. Although I was a
“good” child, my small world didn’t include a to craft a path
sense of empathy or how my behavior was
connected to others. My sense that I alone
controlled my life and destiny was reinforced forward.
by my father. He often told me that it is a
dog-eat-dog world. As I developed my own
moral compass, I realized that some people
give you bad advice and that part of having
a moral compass includes evaluating what
others tell you.
ARTWORK SOLOMIYA BOLYUKH AGE 12 USA
APR-JUN 2021 15
Like many of my generation, social unrest and an enlarged
awareness of cultural inequality entered my consciousness
in college. Eventually this led to an estrangement from
my family and a move to California to start my life over.
I was going to be an artist!
I arrived in California with $300, no credit cards, a
typewriter and a few art supplies. I had planned to stay
with a friend and take it from there. The friend and her
partner had a small place and a tumultuous relationship.
It was immediately clear I needed to leave. Questions
relating to what I would do and who I would become
were quickly interwoven with morality because I needed
to make many decisions. Suffice it to say, I met all types
of people and I was exposed to a diversity of lifestyles
and possibilities in a strange world. I worried about
homelessness, the abundance of drugs, and how I would
support myself. I also remembered a poem by Edgar
Guest that I learned as a child:
Somebody said that it couldn’t be done,
But he with a chuckle replied
That “maybe it couldn’t,” but he would be one
Who wouldn’t say so till he’d tried.
Tackling the task of constructing my life didn’t take a day,
or even a week, but many people helped me over many
years. Most of them did it without realizing how much of
a difference their kind gestures made as I tried to craft
a path forward. Indeed, it was hard not to notice that
people I met were willing to provide thoughtful support
to a stranger for no logical reason. Their generous and
unselfish responses in all kinds of circumstances allowed
me to realize that empathy, honesty, and community exist
in society.
One incident encapsulates the humanity of others who
supported me. Shortly after I moved to a room in an
architect’s house, I accidentally spilled permanent black
India ink on a redwood bench in a room the architect was
renovating. I was so devastated I couldn’t bring myself
to tell him about the large black spot on the now ruined
bench. After a few weeks, when it finally came to his
attention, he responded by saying that he had made
many mistakes while building the room. Mistakes happen.
Things change. That’s the way life is.
Throughout my life, acts of kindness like the architect’s
seeded my path. The thoughtfulness people expressed
from moment to moment helped me in navigating the
confusion, contradictions, and complications in my
world. For me, morality encompasses doing the right
thing as well as knowing that how we treat mistakes
makes a difference. It also includes trying, even if the
path isn’t clear. After all these years, the Guest poem
still comes to mind when faced with something that
seems impossible. Of course, my lifelong passion for
art and creativity played an important role in this period
when I was creating something we each must craft for
ourselves—a foundation for life.
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