Using the arts to create more connected communities as we age

Question of the Day

What does "childhood" mean?

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What is the most valuable thing you've learned?

I have learned the hard way that it is important to know your limits. Self-care and making sure you do not over-do work is important if you want to make sure you don't get sick!

Sarah

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Have you ever done something secretly kind for someone?

I do something secretly for Sisters, Nuns. I gather groceries and took them to their sister house and put them inside the door and rang the bell and ran to my car so they didn’t know who they were from. The other thing that is perhaps bigger is that I have prayed for enemies, people who have done harm to me. Either in academia or in the work place and it’s a competitive world but I have prayed to forgive them and ask to be forgiving toward them for their transgression. So this fits with Matthew 38-48 where he asks us to forgive our enemies and he says if you only love those who love you, there is nothing special about that. Now this is a hard thing to do and it is something I have to work very hard to do but I have been able to do it on a number of occasions to pray for forgiveness for enemies. Now the Amish did it when some of their children were killed at school and they forgave the killers of their children.

Ernest H.

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If you could ask a Question of the Day, what would it be?

How can I be part of the solution?

Tillie F.

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What advice did your parents or grandparents give you?

| Well mostly they didn’t give too much advice, they were indentured to this country. To come from this country from Germany in 1923 and had virtually no money when they came so hard work was their message. My mother said work is more important than play. I played baseball and my team, I fancied myself a good hitter, which I was. I would have liked to continue to pursue baseball but I had to work instead. I got to see my parents in Germany, grandparents in 1958. Two of them on my mothers side. My grandmother was bed ridden and died a few months later. But her husband, my grandfather, sang to her to get a smile on her face as she lay in bed so that was a kind of unspoken advice to me. My mother was a humble person, only had an 8th grade education and did 3.9 average at Marquette and graduate school at uwm and if I got 5As and a B when the report card came she’d ask what happened with that B? I got a kick out of that because she would also say that I was to get my brains from my father as she didn’t think she was too smart but she was smart, in my opinion, in other ways.

Ernest H.

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What advice would you give young people today?

I would say, "be all that you can be." You are the future of this world. Make it a place where you can be proud and safe.

Tillie F.

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What is a good citizen?

Someone who helps others

Willie

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How are you courageous in your own life?

I try to do as much for my children & grandchildren daily as possible. I do to the best of my ability to keep going on each day & put a smile on someone's face including my own. Thank You Lord!

Anonymous, Goodwill Meal Site

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Whom do you consider have courage in your own life?

Anyone who goes through a serious illness and can keep a smile on their face. That takes courage.

Anonymous, Goodwill Meal Site

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Let’s write a story of courage. What is the moral of our story?

You never know you have courage until you have to use it.

Anonymous, South Side

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Let’s write a story of courage: How should our story end?

There was a big party and everyone had fun.

Anonymous, Goodwill Meal Site

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Let’s write a story of courage. Who or what helps our hero overcome those obstacles?

He has faith in himself and his fellow men.

Anonymous, Goodwill Meal Site

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Let’s write a story of courage. What obstacles face our main character?

Their canoe tipped over and they lost their gear.

Anonymous, Goodwill Meal Site

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Let’s write a story of courage: What should be our hero’s strengths? Weaknesses?

Strength. Compassion. Humor. Wit. Weakness? Makes too many assumptions?

Bruce

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Let’s write a story of courage: What act or situation requires courage?

With a gentle but resolute intention, she moved deeper into the cool water.

Sadie

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Let’s write a story of courage: Where should our story take place?

The story should take place in my own neighborhood on the South Metro area of Milwaukee

Matilda

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What does courage mean to you?

Stepping out of my comfort zone. Just doing it.

Anne

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How would you start a story?

Once upon a time there was a telepathic cat...

Angie

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What might you like to tell Milwaukee?

I’d like to tell them, I don't know, to do something about their education programs and their transportation. That’s definitely something that’s got to be, to go out to the suburbs and that. You have to get behind that. Oh and things for the handicapped, do more programs and that for the handicapped, or for people who need to work at home.

Angie

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What is the most beautiful sound in the world?

The ripple of $100 bills!

Anonymous, East Side

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What is the most beautiful sound in your home?

Well right in my apartment it is listening to public radio. I listen to different stations including the UWM one and just outside my door there is a parakeet, not a parakeet, a cardinal that we go past, it sings. It is a battery operated cardinal, which was really makes the outside my door, makes me feel good.

Angie

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Where do you connect with nature?

When I do a little gardening.

Anonymous, South Side

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What is your safe harbor?

My bed!

Anonymous, South Side

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What are the sounds of Milwaukee?

Sounds of the wind, music, and diversity

Anonymous, East Side

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What are the sounds of your neighborhood?

Snow blowers & lawn mowers

Anonymous

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What blocks your path?

My own inertia.

Anonymous

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What is a well-worn path for you outside your home?

| I met with Bill L for an "in-home visit" with an artist as part of the Islands Team. I asked Bill this question and he paused for quite awhile. Was it too abstract of a question? "There's so many, I can't choose," he said. He showed me a book of stories about his family farm in Charlevoix, MI. Nearly every chapter was entitled "The Path..." The Deer Path. The Swamp Path. The Lake Path. "I have time - you can tell me about all of them," I said.

Anne B.

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What is the most well-worn path in your home?

Bed to shower to fridge to stove to couch to toilet to floor to shoes to door

Sam K

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Is there an intersection you wish you could cross on foot, but feel it is too dangerous?

The Islands Team distributed Question of the Day cards at Meal Sites across the city, where older adults can get both a healthy, reduced fee meal and camaraderie. We received over 200, passionate responses. In response, we will stage THE CROSSINGS, street performances aimed at encouraging Milwaukee to become a city that SEES and STOPS for pedestrians. May 1st and 2nd. Cross with us! Host a Crossings Workshop. Email us on the Join Us page.

Islands Team

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If you could go anywhere in Milwaukee right now, where would you go, and why?

I would go to McDonalds on 6th and Oklahoma, get a couple of burgers and a cup of coffee or two, and call it a day.

Anonymous

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What is something you treasure in your home, and why?

Photographs of my children, because they are out of state. And also my orchids. I've had them for a long time. And my children send them to me.

Mary, Brady St. Area

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Where is a place you feel comfortable talking to someone you don't know?

I feel comfortable talking with people I don't know practically any place. Like a restaurant, pancake house, iHOP, is a comfortable place for me. A library, waiting rooms, you name it. The only place that I probably wouldn't feel safe is at a bus stop by myself with no people around. I have a tendency, I like to meet new people.

Angie, St. Francis

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How does water move?

The Islands Team visited with Jim and Fran at their home. Jim loves to walk along the shores of Lake Michigan and collect driftwood. His response to this question was a 30 minute, wordless dance with pieces of driftwood, gently tumbling across waves. We shared the dance with Sojourn artists, who learned it and returned to share it with Fran, while Jim adjusted to a transition into skilled care. After watching the dance once, Fran joined in.

Islands Team

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