“Our Hope lies in The Children”
Did I say that there are going to be eight (8) ten-year-olds* as a part of this event? (Several
of the children are older than ten.) The Planning Committee decided that the children, each born after 9/11 and raised in a different family of faith, would symbolize our hope for a better world. Media adviser Louise Brooks suggested that it was important that we hear from the children themselves. So, the idea was to get them all together in one place on a single afternoon to make a small video.
Simple.
Easy.
Affordable.
Once we began actually dealing with the logistics, however, herding cats looked like a much easier task.
Summer vacations. Special activities. Camps and classes and family reunions… The Christian child was in New York with her parents until after Labor Day. The Indigenous family had no way to video their child and get it back to us. Busy parents. And our very special filmmaker scheduled to leave town.
On our first try we were able to get one child.
But there was something compelling about Louise’s idea of hearing from the children themselves, and so we tried all over again to find a way to bring everyone together on a single afternoon. And it worked. Somehow as we persevered everything shifted just a little. Our filmmaker’s schedule opened, and then suddenly the pieces fell into place, one after another.
Sometimes, when we are deeply blessed, something takes over in situations like these and we are given more than we could possibly have envisioned.
On a hot busy weekend afternoon several weeks ago, six families were willing to uproot their summer schedules and sit in the weekend traffic to bring their children to a stranger’s home to do something that they thought might help to make this world a little better. They had no idea what their children were going to do except to help make a film to promote a faithful response to the ten-year anniversary of the horror of September 11, 2001. Yet they came. They all came joyfully and eagerly and grateful, each one, to be able to have their child contribute something towards a more peaceful world. It was remarkable. And humbling.
The children were wonderful, every one of them. One was sick and yet he followed through
and did the filming anyway as his father waited patiently with his younger brother across the yard, the two of them looking in wonder at the leaves on the ground. Another was tired from traveling over two hours to get there and yet there was not a word of complaint.
One of these children wants to be a doctor, another wants urgently to address the brutality in Darfur, one is trying to figure out with his friends how to get kids to get along better, another is toying with being a star so she can use her status to help others… and another is already a highly recognized student speaker. What an impressive collection of youngsters.
I learned another lesson that afternoon about how our children express the values we teach them and how these expressions vary from faith to faith. Some religions value humility more than assertiveness. Some value an active concern for others above propriety or submission. Each has a set of common values about love and the Holy and relationships with God and with others.
The children raised in their particular traditions reflected those values on camera. Their
words echoed the teachings they had grown up with - which while lovely - lacked the spontaneity of ten- year-olds.
That’s where Jennifer Jessum, (Finding God in the City of Angels) our remarkable filmmaker, went into action. Jennifer (a member of The Advisory Council) knew how to connect with each child individually to draw each out. “Now can you say the same thing as if you were explaining it to a five-year-old,” she’d suggest to one of the girls or
“Can you say that in your own words and tell it right into the camera?”
She took the time to listen to each of these children. She listened quietly, respectfully, patiently. She encouraged all the children to be themselves - and the results are stunning.
See for yourself.
Stunning indeed. We need to listen more to our children. They are very much our present as well as our future. Thank you for the extraordinary gift of this film. And for the whole event.
I loved your video of the children speaking from their faith tradition telling us all to have hope. Thank you Rev. Gwynne Guibord for bringing them together. I look forward to your upcoming event on September 11, 2011 that will celebrate the hope of the holy.
Lana Sremba
Stunning video from the children. I just love to see the work in action(religion from inside out). It just makes me shake inside. Blessings.
The way the cinematographer has captured and presented the faces of these truth telling children is moving and heartwarming. Our mutual hope is for them.