In carrying out the project,
I talked to twenty-five people between the ages of 7 and 82.
I talked to history professors, veterans, students, children,
Civil War re-enactors, and librarians. I spoke to Native Americans,
African Americans, European Americans, and people from other
countries. I spoke to Christians, Muslims, and Jews. While it
was neither the beginning point nor the exclusive focus, people
frequently referred to the current war in Iraq. I spoke to people
along the political spectrum, from vocal supporters of the war
to people who were protesting the military action in Iraq. My
interviews did not follow a strict question-answer format but
were designed to give individuals room to talk about what was
important to them.
After being interviewed, participants were invited to make
a quilt square. Originally, I thought the squares would be combined
in a quilt to illustrate the range of opinions on war. However,
as I conducted the interviews, I learned that not only do different
people have drastically different responses to war, but that
each person has a range of thoughts and feelings about war.
I perceived incredible parallels between our how we understand
and speak about war and making a quilt. We compile all we have
experienced and all we have read in magazines or seen on TV
with the stories that they have been told by friends and family
members. We combine that with our faith and our views on violence,
gender issues, national security, and other issues that share
a connection with war. Then we sew these pieces of knowledge
and emotion together to create our responses to war. The quilt
underscores this reality as many squares had multiple images
and sections reflecting multiple responses to the reality of
war.
Dialogue can only begin when we recognize this reality within
ourselves and within each other. It is not useful to think of
war in terms of slogans or to label people we disagree with
as warmongers or radical protestors. That is too simplistic.
Instead, we must leave behind the restrictions of bumper sticker
thinking and honor the complexity of responses that we all have
in order to allow meaningful communication.
To begin a dialogue, it might be useful for congregation or
small group to make a quilt. We do not have to be artists to
create a meaningful quilt square. We can write on fabric using
markers or craft pens. We can print photos and other images
off of the Internet and glue them onto a square. We can trace
shapes, draw stick figures, write a poem, or splatter paint
everywhere. There are a multiple of mediums for people to use.
The limits are our imaginations. By incorporating each person's
square into a quilt, we will find that a three-letter word can
have widely different meanings and associations. Within the
quilt, each individual will find his or her voice. As individuals
visually see that their image is not the only one in the quilt,
we may recognize that there are other opinions and other viewpoints
to be considered in the discussion. From that point, opportunities
may arise to move beyond rhetoric to meaningful dialogue in
which all may grow. |
