Step right up for creativity and renewed citizenship

by Courtney E. Martin            

Nine-year-old Caine Monroy doesn't have much. He is young. Not particularly popular. His dad owns an auto body shop. But Caine is rich in imagination, and as it turns out, nothing could be as important. If you haven't yet seen this powerful video about this Los Angeles-area kid whose ingenuity led to his dreams coming true, and the prospect of a fully-funded college education, you simply must:

Caine is a teacher for us all about the importance of creativity, persistence, and the power of reaching out to individual strangers and inviting them into our worlds of play. But there are also many teachers to be found in the forms of the people that answer Caine's small call in this video--neighbors and friends, both local and international, who saw in him something worth affirming, supporting, and showing up for. The party that the video features in the end is not what many people might picture when asked to imagine engaged citizenship, and yet, it really is exactly this spirit brought to life. 

What sort of imagination is being overlooked in your community? Whose cardboard dreams might you affirm? How can we gather around the most visionary people in our neighborhood--however defined--and let their gift be infectious and renewing for us all? 

Note:  Courtney is the author of our Healing Democracy Action Circles guide.  We hope you'll sign up to lead a circle! Learn more here, and be sure to follow along with us here on the blog, on our Facebook page, and on Twitter (@couragerenewal).