A reader asks Matt whether he has considered adapting his Umbrellas for Peace workshops for U.S. soldiers injured during combat duty in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Matt responds:
The umbrella is a unversal tool. It can be used in many innovative and unusual circumstances.
I think to be able to use the umbrella as a tool of acceptance for returning soldiers is an excellent idea. I personally have never lost a limb or any part of my body, but I would imagine there would be a lot of self-examination for people that happens to: “Was it really worth it, why did I go there, is the world a better place because of what happened to me, do people really give a damn, am I the same person coming back as I was going over?”
The acceptance of who and what you are, the reason why things happen, all have to be examined and dug out of the self. In my education as a funeral director, I saw how important it was to put these kinds of questions into the right mode and perspective. It’s something we have to answer for ourselves, not for the collective. The answers are different and unique to each person, even though they might have a commonality.
The umbrella embodies that concept. It is what it is to the person standing underneath it. There can be ten people thinking ten different things, and all ten are accepted under the geographic area of the umbrella.
The problem we have with the universality of the umbrella is that it has so many different forms. Before I left Chicago I met with people I had an Umbrella Project with in the state of Illinois. It has moved from town to town to libraries to schools to all different places. They asked, “Should we write a book about this?”
Of course the answer is yes, but the other question is, “Who’s going to do it?”
When I arrive on the scene of an Umbrellas for Peace, I look on myself as carrying a little plant. I dance around it, put some water on it, and say, “Either nurture this or don’t nurture it, and if I come back in a year, it’s either a tree or a dead twig.”
Personal responsibility to the idea is wonderful. When I was with the Papal Knights, working for peace in the Holy Land, someone made a big speech saying we should go over there for six months at a time, and do this and do that, and involve these people and create committees to handle these tasks—and finally, I said to him, “I think that’s a marvelous idea. Why don’t you become chairman?”
He said to me, “How the hell do you think I have the time to do that?”
There are so many manifestations that can be thought of and implemented, but it takes people, time, effort, and money to turn the dream into reality.
I think that your idea of working with people coming back from wars is wonderful, and it really ties in with the first group that I worked with, who were the survivors of 9/11.
Thank you for the idea.
Matt