Lilly is an artist, among three hosts on a panel discussion on art, architecture, and the public sphere held Saturday.
She went to a village in Rwanda as an artist. The people there showed her mass graves, bones stacked haphazardly on open shelves. She observed that healing would not happen there, with the bones of their loved ones simply haunting them on a daily basis. She showed the living a few tile mosaic techniques and found herself aiding the design and construction of a proper burial site. The new one is white and purple. Purple is the color of national mourning. It is beautiful, and Lilly claims this is the most important point: Beauty is healing for the soul.
Lilly is not a student of community organizing, activism, or politics. She did not lead the effort either. She was a catalyst. "Without me, the work would not have happened, but with me, it was not mine."
She is older, English is not her native tongue. She comes across as extremely intuitive, her actions and words seem to come straight from her creative right-brain.
She spoke of innate knowledge. Where others at the meeting were applying theories and studies, she simply followed her instincts.
I do not think she struggles with meaning. It might be unwise to adopt another's path, or cause, or launch into some misguided attempt to save the world, but there is something here. I think it is about right brains, and moving from right to left brain and back. Getting closer to animal instincts without losing one's reason.
Does the idea of innate knowledge ring any bells?