An Intentional Act of Kindness
Public art can build community
You’re a sophomore at Brevard High walking home on Broad Street, rounding the curve where the sidewalk straightens out and goes past the library. You’re looking down because your head is heavy with worry.
The grownups in your world don’t seem to care about the mess they made of climate change, or the insane bullying on social media, or how your grades dropped during COVID. Your dad laughed when you said you might need some help. “Not my kid!” he said. “This family can take care of itself, understand?”
You think, “Life just gets harder. Nobody will miss a failure like me.” As if you’ve been heard, words appear at your feet in colored chalk on the sidewalk.
Last Saturday a group of young people and adult residents marched from Brevard College to the Library, with a banner that said, “Voice of the Students”.
They created a sidewalk mural to share their message of support to fellow students who need recognition and encouragement. They are beginning to change the narrative coming from harmful social media, from our gun culture, and from powerful adults who put profit over mental health.
These children have found community mentors to help get their voices heard. Saturday’s event was organized by TC Strong.
TC Strong is one result of a collaborative effort among students, schools, parents and local groups including Transylvania Public Health, the Blue Zones Project and The Family Place.
The “Through Grief to Gratitude” walk highlighted the need [to respond to the national teen mental health crisis], as one event organizer put it, to “stop sweeping it under the rug.”
I discovered the chalk mural on Monday as I walked to my car with a stack of checked-out library books. The loopy green arrow was so delightful, I had to follow it.
Statistics show that about 225 Transylvania County high school students struggle with serious mental health issues like depression, persistent sadness, anxiety, hopelessness and thoughts of suicide.
Our students today live in a society of constant judging and being judged.
The messages on the library sidewalk help to show everyone who passes by that the need for support is not something to be ashamed of. It shows there is a community of kindness right here, where trust is possible.
Hazel Friedman, an eighth grader at Brevard Academy, doesn’t see much conversation either and thinks such talk faces a block to open discussion.
“There’s this barrier where talking about mental health is embarrassing to some students,” she said. And when the topic does surface some students “make jokes about it and call people ‘emo’” which is teen slang for someone “who is overly sensitive, emotional, and full of angst.”
I hope the mural has broken down a little bit of that barrier.
Making the mural was just one of the activities that day. This was the flyer on the Care Coalition Facebook page:
How can some adults think young people aren’t aware that we’re living in a scary world? They might even know more than we do. Let’s be open, inclusive and honest with each other, no matter what generation we belong to.
Six years ago when lies and denials took over the national news, I realized that when we finally did hear the truth again, it would sound brutal. It would be upsetting.
But we can handle the truth, and so can our youth, if we really believe in the world we want to create. What if we joined our elders’ experience with the idealism of the young?
“This Way to Respect, Caring and Hope,” is an arrow that will take us there if we follow it together.
Absolutely wonderful, Deda.....this needs to be shared with all the members of the newly elected school board.
This was a wonderful article and I’m going to share it with the few that may not even want to hear it. I read the article in the paper, and this mural is beautiful, just beautiful and so meaningful!!