TacyPyles

Tacy Pyles
Dr. Campbell
TN Alternative Spring Break
Journal Entry 2
08 March 2009

Today we visited the Frist Center for Visual Arts. After eating lunch there, we began our tour of the museum. The first exhibit was called “Seeing Ourselves,” and beautifully depicted the splendor of perseverant dreaming. When I heard we would be visiting the exhibit for those families who had been touched by the outreach of Safe Haven, I did not expect to walk away feeling uplifted. Safe Haven focuses on community development that keeps families together and teaches children self-esteem while allowing them to express themselves through art.

The art was surprisingly filled with happiness, dreams, passion and love. After taking a two-week course on self expression through writing and visual arts, the homeless of Safe Haven were given cameras to express through photography and poetry how they see themselves. The images that were compiled in the exhibit were composed of smiles, laughter, flowers and trees. The images demonstrated a belief that they have now become connected with their community in a special way.

I walked away from these images realizing that nothing separates me from the homeless. We have the same kind of hopes and dreams -we feel the same fears and have the same anxieties. Why does a dollar sign make the difference between a friend and an outcast? Why in a country that proudly proclaims that “all men are created equal” can we not make eye contact with the homeless man on the street?

This evening we passed many people from different backgrounds…the upper class who flitted from shop to shop and the homeless who carried everything they own in a few bags. Passing building after building, with shining windows stacked to the sky, fountains with picturesque statues atop and cathedrals with their stained glass windows, it makes me wonder why this is allowed to happen. Why are people allowed to be homeless when the city can afford so much extravagance? Why are some people allowed to live in mansions while others do not even have one room to claim as their own?