Bubble Wrap and Gumbo

This post should have been posted a few days ago. My bad. :) Anyhow, When we arrived in Shreveport Louisiana last week we didn't know what to expect. None of us had ever been there.

Our host was a super cool friend of ours, Adam, who works for moonbot studios. Moonbot is an awesome world of art, storytelling, and wild imagination. Adam had mentioned to us that the studio was helping put on an Art show for the 50th anniversary of Bubble Wrap, and that they could use our help if we wanted to help. But I didn't think that was good enough.

As we drove around the town I had my eyes peeled for where we should help. I was looking for lower income situations. Were there any shelters? soup kitchens? orphanages? a red cross? I felt like that's what we should be looking for. Its kind of the vibe for where we had volunteered in our previous stops. There were such options we could have found, but as we sought out possibilities like these we had to rethink what we were all about on this trip. We felt like we were looking for needs that fit a certain mold. But needs exist beyond the places we feel they are obvious, like homeless shelters. Even the person who has a wonderful job and nice roof over his head has problems. That person still has dreams, and fears, and needs. Some needs seem insignificant, but that's an idea we want to disprove. Every way you can help someone is important because that person is important.

Its a lesson I'm still learning. We decided that helping with an art show was important because the people who were putting it on were important. And we had a blast. It was great. It was one of the weirdest things I have ever helped with. The show was celebrating bubble wrap and using it in very odd ways to create art, from bubble wrap clothing, to a giant blow up teddy bear. We helped take this living room set and wrap every piece of it in bubble wrap. We were able to meet and talk with some really awesome artists out there. We got to help them with what they needed and even share some good louisiana cooking with them. I wouldn't have had the day any other way.

So we didn't volunteer at some humanitarian organization, but we didn't need to. We are learning that you often don't have to go super far to look for needs, because they present themselves to us right where we are.

<3 Stan

ps. kelly street is for you kelly! :)