What We Do With Heart
“What We Do With Heart” Mission and Instructions
“Movies With Grandma Joy” is nothing if not an unabashed confession of how much I dig and value spending time with my grandma. While our movie reviews are my record of that confession, a main reason I was inspired to start this site is my curiosity and interest in how others of and around my generation relate to those of and around my grandma’s generation. For the lack of a super positive synonym, I would say Grandma Joy is what our society calls a senior citizen - not a negative label to be sure, but I’ve never heard of a song called “I am senior, hear me roar,” or of someone paying a compliment like, “Wow, you look so kick-ass senior today!”
If youth, detached communication skills and an ironic humor indeed overshadow contemporary pop culture and media, then I desire to foster relationships with people who have lived most of their lives away from computer screens. And while I value the way that rapid technological advances can be used to widen social networking and awareness, and allow me to watch clips of “SNL” and “Flight of the Conchords” till 2 AM, I feel they can also serve to disconnect my generation more severely from those generations that used typing ribbons and wrote really long letters… with pens!
I understand that maybe some of our ageist prejudices as a society derive from deeply held human concerns and fears about the vulnerability inherent in the later years of life, but I would hope such feelings can translate into a want to learn from people facing such life changes. So here is my HOPE and CHALLENGE:
Teens, twenty-somethings-plus: spend time with a senior. Seniors: hang out with us. Then, report it.
Grandma and I see movies, play Scrabble, eat and sometimes get her car washed. What do you guys do? Knit? Go fishing? Cook? Watch soccer… The Office…? Play Wii?
This is a community site where you make a report of what experiences, adventures and everyday activities you share with a person (a grandparent, a good friend, a neighbor, a woman at the nursing home in town, a grandson, a niece, a great-uncle) who is a product of a generation a few after or before your own. I’ve tried to help by giving some detailed instructions below as an example to follow but any and all submissions are welcome — stories, drawings, pics, audio files, videos… If you are going to send media bigger than 20 MB, e-mail me first and we will figure out a better way to get it to me!
Directions:
1. Plan and then take part in an activity with a person pretty much, straight up a lot older or younger than you are.
Examples of age difference: Person Number One remembers the first time they watched the MTV Astronaut put the MTV flag on the moon. It was in neon colors.
Person Number Two remembers the first time the whole world watched someone put the first real flag on the moon. It was in black and white.
This activity can be a special event.
Examples: Going to the Opera. Taking a road trip to the Grand Canyon. Baking a birthday cake.
OR… it can be an ordinary, maybe daily, weekly or monthly occurrence.
Examples: Going to get your nails done. Visiting the doctor. Checking out a book from the library. Watching “Jeopardy.” Playing the lotto.
2. Document this activity with three pictures. These visual aids must include one image of both people together taking part in the activity and one image of the final result or product.
Example: A picture of an empty plate (except for some crumbs) after eating a really scrumptious meal. A picture of the vase you just wired to be a lamp. The ripped ticket stubs from your outing to the Patti Smith concert.
3. Respond to the following questions and prompts in three sentences or less per prompt.
- First names of the participants involved.
- Relationship of the participants to each other.
- Length of the relationship.
- Location where activity took place. This includes: The specific location (a store, home, or theatre, etc.), City, and State
- A brief description of the activity shared.
- Give the reason the activity was enacted out.
- What is one thing (this can be a mannerism, a shared history, a similar point of view, a smile, a nose) you discovered you share with the other person while performing this activity?
- What is one thing each of you learned about the other that you did not know before? This can be a seemingly small revelation. It could be that you did not know that this person is allergic to strawberries or that their first kiss was during a blackout after drinking one too many glasses of sherry.
4. E-mail your image and written responses to Shauna@movieswithgrandmajoy.com
I will post them ASAP but give me a few days, okay?
Have a kick-ass senior time!
Shauna
