Art forms are great communicators

By Rebecca Petersen | The Daily Journal

Published Saturday, September 6, 2008

My head is swimming and, so it goes, just when you think you know the answers to the questions you’re trying to solve someone new comes along and wants you to say it in different words.

That’s what we found this week when we had a site visit from the Bush Foundation staff and special site visitor Cinda Holt. But, this is OK. It helped us better define who we are and what we do here.

A dear, dear friend always says that life’s biggest problems are all about communication. So it was one more lesson in how we need to be clear and articulate about our message.

Isn’t that the truth? Think of it. When you’re not getting along with someone at work or at home it’s either because you didn’t communicate your thoughts very well with them, or they misunderstood you or, maybe you failed to communicate at all. Wow! Communication and language are such important tools and we never spend enough time perfecting them.

Here’s one of my favorite stories and a favorite example of how communication didn’t work very well for me – but it worked out.

It was years ago. I was in Memphis, Tenn. representing Minnesota that year as the soybean princess. (yes, me, Princess Soya!) I had this great speech prepared. I practiced it over and over again. It started with me greeting the National Soybean Growers in several languages — Japanese, Spanish, French and German. Then I launched into how soybeans are a worldwide commodity and feeding people in many, many countries. (That was the year they thought that the National Soybean Princess would be going to China — I really wanted to go to China!)

But somewhere in the middle of the speech, I lost my concentration. I got really nervous. I forgot what I was supposed to say next. I started mixing things up and I wasn’t communicating my message very well at all. The crowd was hushed. What will she say or do next?

So I stopped, took a deep breath, turned back into myself (not a princess anymore) and told them how scared I was to be standing up in front 20,000 people talking about soybeans. I finished my speech, speaking about how growing up on a farm and having a dad who raised soybeans, studied soybeans and eventually working at a soybean plant had changed my life and had taught me about world hunger and politics and ended with that.

The crowd roared. They loved it that I had had a few moments of open, honest, communication with them. They understood what I was saying. They could relate. (I think I had made them nervous as well.)

When I walked off stage half of the other contestants were in tears. “You won. They loved you. We don’t have a chance.”

I assured them — I hadn’t won anything. Go out there and give it your best. Tell them your story. Communicate with them, I said.

No, I didn’t win the trip to China. Someone else was chosen to be The National Princess Soybean. I think it was Georgia’s Soybean Princess and she went to Norway that year.

So, I’m still learning about communication and about beauty pageants and about soybeans. Last week I got to help judge the Little King and Queen Pageant for the Dalton Thresherman’s big weekend this weekend. It brought back lots of memories.

I really had fun communicating with those kindergartner and first-graders. But it was exhausting. We all speak such different languages.

So it is with the arts. Sometimes it’s just hard to put some things into words. The arts are yet another form of communication. We have it all in the months ahead — communication through music, dance, film, poetry, visual art, theater — it’s all here.

Check out our Web site at www.fergusarts.org or pick up our newsletter in the box office, Tuesday through Friday from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. or Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

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Rebecca Petersen is the director of A Center for the Arts in Fergus Falls.