YOUTHCAN @ THE WING

By John

Throughout my life, I have realized that the world creates music on its own. Listening to the winds blow as if they were flutes playing a familiar tune, I begin to whistle along; starting to imitate the simple melody. Sometimes, I walk out into the park to just listen to the trees harmonize with their leaves brushing together as the birds sing their songs of delight. It’s because of this feeling that “when I hear music, I fear no danger. I am invulnerable. I see no foe. I am related to the earliest times, and the latest” (Henry David Thoreau).

I realized that through music I am able to imitate nature. Through music I can intertwine with nature. When I hear the symphony of nature creates, my mood begins to change as the music of nature changes. It’s a little funny; when I listen outside I can hear music being plated throughout nature, the minor and major cords being played through the leaves and the birds. My mood brightens up as the sun shines and as the birds wake me up with their very cute falsettos. I start to feel invincible when I hear mother earth’s music being played. It is the most amazing feeling I can have.

It’s amazing for me that I can also imitate modern media. I guess it is because I can relate to the music and to make it better, you are able to control what you want to imitate and you can innovate parts of it. When in nature, you can change the mood of the music to the mood you want. One thing that I would love everyone to do is to walk out and just listen to nature.

I have simple a question to ask, for me I feel invulnerable listening to music within nature, so what do you imitate that makes you feel invulnerable?

The YouthCAN Summer Cultural Arts Experience is all about the environment this summer. In fact, this summer begins a three year initiative on what we’re calling environmental heritage.

What is environmental heritage? Simply put, environmental heritage is the historic relationship between people and the land. An untold story about Northwest environmental hertiage is the contributions made by Japanese immigrants over 100 years ago.  Did you know that the labor force that built the railroad that runs underneath Stevens Pass was primarly of Japanese discent? This begs the question: when we look East and to the Cascade Mountains, are we looking at a Japanese landscape? This is one of the questions we’ll take up this summer.

But you may ask yourself: What does environmental heritage matter to me? Come by the Wing Luke Museum on Friday, April 15^th at 3:30PM to hear Seattle City Council Member Mike O’Brien talk about how his high school experience led to him to take leadership on environmental issues and how you can too!