Creative Care by Anne Basting

Author:Anne Basting
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2020-03-24T16:00:00+00:00

Reading the Odyssey in Public

As the project took shape, the Penelope team had monthly conference calls with a good dozen lead collaborators: the director and designer from Sojourn Theatre; the lead staff in each area of care for Luther Manor; and me and my student support team.

“Anyone try any interesting creative workshops over the last month?” I asked in one of our calls. There was a pause, and then Jean, the activity specialist in the skilled nursing area, chimed in. Jean had created a display area for the Penelope project in the nursing home, complete with a mannequin sitting on a chair and weaving on a small loom, a lyre (where on earth did she find a lyre?), and maps of Greece.

“Well, we took a field trip to a nearby lake to see what Penelope might have felt, waiting for her love to return over water,” she said.

Wait. You did what?

“It was a beautiful fall day,” said Jean. “We read from the Odyssey. People were so curious what we were doing.”

I can only imagine. A transport van full of older people unloads in a county park. Navigating their walkers, canes, and wheelchairs, they roll up to the lakeside viewpoint, open their copies of the Odyssey, and in the warm September light read aloud of Penelope’s grieving, for her noble husband and now too her grown son, both at sea, their return uncertain.

What if the project was so interesting that the staff, at all levels, felt empowered to invite the elders to join them in a deep exploration of the themes?

Check.

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