Silent Night.

So the other night a friend of mine let me go with him to the Make A Wish dinner at the mysterious 'Club 33' at Disneyland.  I could do a whole blog series on the evening-- from pictures with Mickey to the 5 course meal and the unbelievable company and inspiring cause.

But the one thing I want to share now is how the night ended.  The last course was served at 10:30pm (I had salmon-- I can still taste it).  We walked out of the club around 11:30pm.  By this time the park had been closed for hours.  Everyone else was waiting for an escort from the park to lead us to the exit.  But my friend looks at me, and with a grin that is one part innocent and one part impish he said, "Let's find our own way out."

So we spent a bit of time walking through Disneyland park-- with all the lights on-- by ourselves.  The flames of the Tiki Room were on.  The Magic Kingdom was all lit up.  Main Street was open.

And all was silent.

The Kingdom was alive...but still.  Frozen in a warm peace, with just the sounds of our footsteps and occasional murmurs of conversation lifting into the brisk night sky.

So, one of my favorite authors is Frederick Buechner.  Any list of the 20th Century's greatest writers has Frederick's name on it.  He's kind of the male equivalent of Flannery O'Conner.  In his book, "Telling the Truth" he writes about silence as it relates to truth:

"[Truth] is the television news, but with the sound turned off.  There are no words to explain it or explain it away, no words to cushion or sharpen the shock of it, no definition given to dispose of it with such as a fire, a battle, a strike, a treaty, a beauty, an accident.  Just the thing itself, life itself, or as much of it as the screen can hold, flickering away in the dark of a room.


A man is making a speech outside on the flight of stone steps with one fist going up and down, his lips moving, a single wisp of hair lifted up by the breeze like a feather, and there is a crowd watching him or not watching him as the spirit moves them or fails to move them.  They are black and white, men and women, and even some of the ones who are watching him seem to have their eyes turned inwards as though they are watching something else inside, listening to some other voice.  

Somewhere else jerry-built houses lie in ruin, and a fat woman in a Mother Hubbard stands in what was once a doorway with a cat in her arms, behind her a man in a T-shirt with a caved-in mouth.  A beautiful young woman in a long dress sits down at a piano, and a pair of men carrying a body on a stretcher between them hot foot it down a city street in a running crouch while from high windows snipers' bullets fly out silent as a dream.  A great ship cuts through the water with many flags.  A whole mountainside is awash with flame.  A girl in a picture hat raises a pair of binoculars to her eyes.

Truth itself cannot be stated.  Truth simply is, and is what is, the good with the bad, the joy with the despair, the presence and the absence of God..."

I think this is why I like silence so much, why I used to go on walks in the nearby park when it was snowing outside when I was in college.  The crunch of snow under my feet and the distinct sound of silent snowfall.

Silence captures a moment and can-- for some-- make life feel more present.

This holiday season go on a walk.  Find someplace quiet.  Leave the ipods, radios, ambiance and company (if you can stand it) behind and be alone with Life.  It is happening, always.  The good and the bad.  The joy and despair.  The presence and absence of God.

That night, my friend didn't know, but I had always wanted to explore the Disney Park when it was empty.  Walt used to do that often before the park opened in the morning.  I think he liked the silence as well.

So while we were at Club 33 to celebrate an organization that made wishes come true for others, being there with my friend made a wish come true for me.

Spark Good in China

Sam's friend sparking good in Hangzhou, China.

Fellow Sparker Sam Pike is leading a Spark with college students at Zhejiang Financial College in Hangzhou, China.

Here's his story:

"The urge to do a China Spark group grew out of a desire to engage in meaningful conversations with the students surrounding me."

"Often, they allow their excitement at speaking with a foreigner to overload all other thoughts or emotions. While normally hilarious, such responses also get tiresome and leave [my colleagues] and I looking for ways to move beyond those jittery interactions."

"We started holding it at a tea house next to the dorms, normally drawing an interested and engaged crowd. While there are certainly better weeks than others, the group is gaining confidence and continually choosing more meaningful sparks.  In fact, last week we had a girl decide to call up her father who has refused to talk with her for the past four years."

To learn more about how to spark good at your university go to http://www.sparkyouruniversity.com

To sign up to receive monthly updates about Spark Good Studios click here.  To share your story about your spark email us here!

Bresee Foundation

I had a great meeting last week with Boris and Julia who work for the Bresee Foundation.  The Bresee Foundation is a nonprofit community center that is a source of faith, hope and service to low-income youth, adults and families in central Los Angeles.  They serve nearly 2,000 individuals annually, primarily at-risk youth from the Mid-Wilshire, Koreatown, Pico Union, and Westlake neighborhoods.

Spark Good Studios is partnering with Bresee (mostly Boris) to try a small experiment to see what happens when "at-risk" youth begin taking risky acts of altruism.

While we were talking the topic shifted from Bresee to all the people who volunteer there but then have to move away.  One person we discussed had moved to Los Angeles to pursue fashion and was now having to move back to the midwest from whence they came.

Which is when I said, "So who says someone has to move to Los Angeles or New York to do fashion?  Who says a small town in the midwest can't become the new fashion hub of the world?"

We all agreed but it still sounded kind of...you know...stupid.

Then again, 200 years ago New York was only a town of 20,000.   And now with globalized markets and democratized technologies anyone, anywhere can find a voice and change the cultural landscape of literally the entire world.

The irony of our conversation was that the Bresee Foundation exists to give hope to kids who might not otherwise have it.  But at risk kids aren't the only ones who need hope.  Cities need hope as well, and so do fashionistas destined for Topeka, KS.  Just like a kid in Pico Union can go to college, so too can your town become a creative force in the world.  Just like Los Angeles was built (and needs to be rebuilt) so too can your city be built and rebuilt.

Hope isn't locked to a geographic location.  Hope goes where creativity goes.  It goes where the hopeful go.  So what cultural force is your community going to be because you're a part of it?  200 years from now why are people going to move to your city?

And how are you going to give hope to those who are searching for it?

A few "Clicks" buys Beds for the Homeless

An excerpt from an email I got yesterday from my friend Josh:

Hey buddy -

Thought you might like this since it is a direct result of one of your Spark Groups.

If you remember, Jenn Kenning took on a risk to start a Non-Profit during one of the Spark Group's back in January at Jonn Hipp's house. Well it is  underway and I am on the Board of Directors and have been a part of it since the beginning. 

We were just approved last night as a Finalist from over 1000 submissions for a $250K Grant from the Pepsi Refresh Project:

Our first project will be to provide 71 full-size beds and bedding essentials to the Los Angeles Downtown Women's Shelter by December 1, 2010 for use in their new shelter building and then an additional 53 Full-Size beds and bedding essentials by June 2011 for use in the newly renovated Original Women’s Shelter building.

The new Non-Profit is called A Good Night's Sleep.  The genesis of this project was actually inspired from both the book "Wide Awake"by Erwin McManus and the movie the Blind Slide.

To help out our friend Jenn simply go to the link below, register and rock the vote.

http://www.refresheverything.com/agoodnightssleep

Spark on!

 

TOO MANY NON-PROFITS!

Have you ever wondered why people feel the need to start up their own non-profit for a cause rather than just work with the non-profits that are already working for that cause?

Wouldn't it be more efficient, focused and drain less resources to have one BIG non-profit rocking the water problem, one BIG non-profit tackling the homeless problem, one BIG non-profit healing the disease problem, etc?

It has become trendy in my world to criticize non-profts in a city with more non-profits than any other city in the United States.  "They should stop asking people for money and go out and get real jobs," I heard a friend of mine recently say.

But does he feel the same way about...say...photography?  I mean, shouldn't there be just one BIG photography company that runs all of the worlds photography needs?  Wouldn't that be more efficient?

And shouldn't there be just one BIG clothing company, and one BIG bank and one BIG school and one BIG government and one BIG church and one BIG TV station or film company where everything is streamlined and efficient?

Think about your profession.  Shouldn't there be just one BIG [insert your profession here] to take care of all of the world's needs?

If you're like me, answering that question gets uncomfortable.  It seems like when you start making one BIG anything you start losing something else.  You start losing uniqueness, you start losing leadership development, leadership expression and-- in the long run-- you diminish a culture's capacity to create, not enhance it.

Not everyone loves being a worker bee in middle management of something huge.  Not everyone should.  Some people love to start new things.  Other people love to run old things.  Some like to take broken things and fix them, others like to take the best and make it better.

Non-profits and For-profits should work together when they can, absolutely.  But the presence of many unique people tackling the same problems in their own unique way with their own unique social networks should be celebrated, not condemned.

The same goes for business, governments, churches, universities, and-- yes-- non profits.

We need more of them, not less.  And the ones we have now need to be better.  So get on it.