When someone asks you what impact you have made in your life what will you say? For me, that has been something that I have been thinking about for a while now and every time I find myself pondering this question, it usually results in the same emotional response: a lot of pressure. A pressure that devalues the world around me, makes me want to do nothing at all, it makes me feel like no matter what I do, nothing will match the success I think of. It is a pressure to do something differently, to work harder, to “grind” until I find success. There is also pressure when I not working as well. It’s the sudden worry when I’m sleeping in on a Sunday morning, or the rush of guilt when I’m scrolling through social media. As difficult as it is to feel accomplishment with pressure there is truth to its power. It keeps you focused and on task and it keeps you accountable, however something that I’ve realized this past year is just how disconnected pressure is from creating impact.
Every year our PLP cohort pushes through whatever restraints are present to present an answer to a specific question for each grade level of the program. If you are a consistent reader, you probably understand what I am saying when I mention restraints (spring exhibition 2020), and although this year felt a little bit more “normal”, I can always say that content is truly unique. The Driving Question for this spring exhibition was: “How do we define a community impact maker”
Every year when a new driving question is presented, I always have the same thought: “Oh, that’s simple!” These are the words that find their way into my brain, and although confidence is helpful, every single year I am blown away by how truly complicated my answer ends up being. As I noted in my Zettlekasten, something only holds as much meaning as it has received, and this exhibition’s question now holds much more meaning than it did when it was first posed.
Our end product would be an explanation and representation of someone who makes an impact on our community, however, before we were to start to answer the question, we first needed to fully understand what was being asked. Let’s first break down the question: What defines a community impact maker? Well first, let’s define “impact”. Our grade ten class collectively defined impact as something that directly changes its surroundings such as a rock falling in water. “It’s the ripple effect that makes an impact” our teacher would say. Someone who impacts the community creates the ripples that make the change. What they have created in the community makes them someone who initiates impact, but what makes one initiate that change, and what drives a change maker to be different than other people around them?
As I have discovered this school year, there is never just one question that needs to be answered to answer the initial question. Your probably like: ‘say whaaaat!’ But you can trust that I have a purpose with that tongue twister. When you think about the greatest questions we have answered, there is never just a straight path to that answer. That’s why when we began to Learn about “Crazy Ones”, that meaning that I mentioned earlier, began to slip into the crevices of our driving question.
What change can one make to fate? What drives one to hold the hand of fate and attempt to pull it out of the darkness that controls their life as well? These questions are a few of many that I had encountered on my path to my current views. These were questions that finding the answer to meant uncovering that darkness and diving into a lightless period of our world’s history. Schindler’s List is a film directed by Stephen Spielberg which covers a story during the time of the holocaust and concentration camps. Shindler is the definition of a impact maker but he is also truly crazy as well. To understand what drove Schindler in the film we have to understand what didn’t drive him as well. It meant watching the mindless death of innocence, it meant trying to fathom a time that was not to fathom, a time forgotten by most, shoved into the darkest place in our being and kept there. In the dark. Like it had been when it had happened, and like it is now. My understanding of the power that story holds can be found in my previous learnings of WWII, where I told the story of the psychological consequences of WWII. I concluded that “We can use the stories of experiences to understand the derivatives of conflict and the un-taught perspectives of war. We can use stories of fear, loss, and triumph to understand the human consequences of WWII and how it had impacted every soul, in a similar, yet completely independent way.” This story brings light and what that light reveals is something truly unique, something absurd, horrible, beautiful, and most of all… crazy. A story that examines human psychology, psychosis, fear, hope, and a determination to alter the future of life itself. This kind of “crazy” is what makes that impact, what makes the ripples that repeat for generation after generation, a crazy that overpowers the confines of life, to bring life to the world. Driven by a light, a spark that needs to escape, a spark that if kindled carefully can bring light throughout the entire world. This is what makes an impact maker. It’s the light they bring, and the darkness they take away.
This is the same for a community impact maker. Like someone who changes the world, to change something has no boundaries. To be someone who changes the world is the same as someone who changes the community. An example of this is Charles Darwin. He changed the way we as humans view our existence, yet he did not change how we exist. Like I said, what makes someone an impact maker is the light that they shine on the world that had been in darkness before their influence. You cannot directly see a physical change because of them but you can see what that light has revealed. In a community, maybe it be a geographical community, to bring light to something that directly impacts the community has no less impact than the light brought upon by Charles Darwin. Perception is not determined by scale so the only variable of impact is what the ripples lead to. This means that there is no telling how widespread impact is and that amount doesn’t directly contribute the importance of impact.
For our grade ten cohort, answering the Driving Question meant finding that relation and presenting it through a person in our community that holds the answer in their influence. Cease Wyss is one of those people. Our community is the North Shore, and for me, after learning about our relationship to the land on the North Shore, I knew that someone one who impacts the community has to impact our view of the community as well. I explained in my presentation that Cease Wyss impacts the collective perception and relationship to the land that is the North Shore. I said that: “her role as a cultural tour guide, teacher of ethnobotany in urban and rural settings, and media artist has allowed her to express her passion and drive for making a change in systems that are unjust or broken.” I would also say that: “In our community she teaches the traditional knowledge of the natural world, she shares the history of the land and its people, and she creates spaces for people to connect and understand nature, therefore changing the systems that have divided people from nature for as long as western influence.” But what I didn’t share is just how important what drives her is to the impact she creates. I didn’t truly understand what she does until I had a incredible conversation with her but the question that kept coming up for me is “how”? How does she teach so much, create so much, and grow so much? That’s where what makes her special comes in.
It is her passion, her love, and her care for what she does that makes her work truly impactful. It is her “why”, her determination, but also the sadness that she feels. These are what drive her, what makes her meaningful. Sure, she may feel pressured, anxious, scared, and probably even angry at times, but the work she creates, well…. It always stems from her soul. The impact is fuelled by that pilot light, that spark. The light that she brings through her action reaches into places of people’s hearts that are not even known to be there. For most, her light brightens the sun in the morning, makes the buzz of bees sound like music, and makes our love shine through to the world around us, rippling on through our intricate web of relation.
The world is not changing fast enough, and the hope we hold is diminishing, but if there is one thing that humans are truly talented at, it would be our ability to imagine, and when we imagine, we can create. (Habit number two baby!) Imagine a track that you want our world to follow, align it with your essence, and go. Go as fast as the wind. Spread that light that Cease and so many before her have provided and don’t let fear get in your way. To make impact is not to fear what you can’t control, but to give everything you have to changing what you can.
This is the last project of this year and I just wanted to acknowledge my teachers for the impact they have had on my grade 10 adventure. I feel that this is a year where I decide my impact on this world and with the opportunities that they have provided, that spark has been lit, creating a light that I can trust will burn bright for the rest of my life. Thank you for following along on my learning journey, and make sure to comment any thoughts that you may have on this post.
Hey Ryder,
Thanks for this meaningful “At the Essence of Impact” blog post. There’s so much rich insight (once again) that you have expressed! Congrats for accomplishing so much with these school projects by virtue of all your thoughtful, creative reflection and quality effort.
Considering what ‘impact’ is and how one might create impact within one’s community, country, or even the world, is certainly a worthy endeavor for the PLP spring exhibition.
I’m understanding you to be saying that having beneficial impact is in some respect synonymous with what one creates in community. And then, this person’s unique contribution may ‘ripple’ out in ways that encourage unbounded, positive change. Does this sound all right?
It’s cool that you’re asking: “what change can one make to fate?” and what ‘drives’ people to engage creatively and make the choices they do? These are, for sure, such important questions when new visions and stories, as well as, innovative solutions, are so very much needed to meet the ongoing ecological disruption.
Also, it’s interesting that you chose metaphorically to ask “what drives one to hold the hand of fate…” because of the connection to Greek mythology. Maybe you know about the three goddesses named the ‘Fates,’ or Moirai, who, legend has it, together weave the thread of every human’s inescapable destiny.
So, it certainly takes a lot of courage to peer into and reflect upon times of such immense darkness within our world’s history.
And, as you propose so poetically, there is always the possibility to bring light – “rippling on through our intricate web of relation” to the world.
I like what you wrote about the reach of ‘perception’ – for instance, how “humans view our existence” – and, in turn, make this connection to an ‘impact maker’ who can shine light on the world and possibly ‘reveal’ what may be hidden.
And, thanks for introducing me to Cease Wyss with her ‘traditional knowledge’ and her understanding of wise human relationship to plants, animals, and nature. I listened to her account of the purple finches whose melodic songs and opportune nest were bringing much delight.
I like the notion that some plants can provide healing naturally. Sounds like you really respect Cease’s passion and the caring she shows for the natural world… and I do too.
You emphasized the all-important, human “ability to imagine” and the optimism this brings while facing the challenges of our times. I agree that this ‘active’ hope is so vital for ‘industrial’ societies to evolve and develop increasingly healthy, regenerative, and sustaining relationships with all the many planetary ecosystems forming the global biosphere.
So, thank you for offering a positive and inspiring vision of shining the light of imagination and creative action upon the world with all the potential existing therein for peaceful change.