Patriotism and Faith Collage

            

             Religious artifacts can be found all over the city: they can be found in nature, structures, sounds, music, taste, and even smells. However, what one might find religiously appealing, another might think of as background stimulus. Through my search for a religious artifact within the city, I found it to be quite frustrating; I was trying to add religious meanings to things that had no business having them. So, I quit my active searching. Instead, I put faith into my subconscious and believed that I would stumble upon something that I thought contained a deeper meaning.

I volunteer at New York Presbyterian – Weill Cornell Hospital in the Burn Intensive Care Unit. The hospital has a religious-type atmosphere because of its association with the religion of Presbyterianism; as you make your way into the building, you pass a temple, prayer room, and a church. As you all know, hospitals have a stigma surrounding them that they are places with bad auras and many people feel uncomfortable when they need to go to one. The hospital is always fast paced: nurses, doctors, and people going to see patients all scrambling about. But one day during my hustle-and-bustle of a volunteer job, I noticed something that made me feel a deeper sense of religion and God than did pacing the temple, prayer room, and church.

Outside my unit, posted on the wall, is a large collage. The collage is composed of several dozen letters written by children from Dwight Elementary School to patients. The letters and notes directly relate the health of service men and women of America to God. The letters contain kind-hearted and thoughtful words like: “God Bless America. Thank you policemen and firemen. Jesus help policemen and firemen. My mom gave blood. We love America. Our country is good. Love, --.,” “We are thinking of you and wish you new peace and harmony,” and  “You have done a great deed and for that God will reward you. God will watch over and protect you. We all need to be more helpful like ya’ll. Thank you for saving our lives. God bless.”

*A close up from the top picture. 

The location of this piece is designed to catch your eye; the collage is at eye level, right underneath the skylights, and consumes the wall. For the most part, besides health advisory notices and directions, the hospital walls are bare. What first grabs your attention are the bright reds and blues in a neutral painted hall. Then, once your attention is grabbed, you look in closer to see that the collage is composed of children’s letters and that is when the warmth and deep thoughts start seeping into your mind. Then, you stand there, trying to read the children’s letters and finding beauty in the imperfection of the penmanship and drawings.

The words consume you. How do young children have such and impact on people’s emotions? When patients, family members, and hospital employees read these letters and notes done by children, it touches them in a different way than would letters done by adults. This is due to the common conception that children are the pure and simpleminded; which reminds people of a life without worry and fault. This compilation of letters and drawings bring ease to the busy atmosphere of the hospital— they bring you to a place where things are simple, and reassure you that “things will get better.”

This collage was made for the service men and women post-9/11. During this time of such devastation, loss, and disaster many people turned to God. Because this act of terrorism also had a religious aspect, the people of America united and grew stronger with the help of each other and God. Dorothy Day reflects on the post-catastrophe society in her autobiography, The Long Loneliness: “Another thing I remember about California was the joy of doing good, of sharing whatever we had with others after the earthquake, an event which threw us out of our complacent happiness into a world of catastrophe,” (page 21). Day emphasizes that people unite after devastation for the sake of the community. As a person who experienced September 11^th first hand because I grew up in Nassau County, Long Island (less than 50 miles from the World Trade Center), I can attest to Day’s statement that communities come together after catastrophic events. The American people came together in the stand against terrorism and had faith that God would restore their “complacent happiness."

The collage evokes many emotions: patriotism and faith. The location of the collage shows the support and love from Americans when fellow Americans are in need. The colors on the pages show America’s patriotism. And the words of the children in the letters show that God is valued in times of need.

Works Cited:

Houtman, D., Meyer, B., “Introduction: Material Religion—How Things Matter” in Things:  

     Religion and the Question of Materiality. (2012)

Day, D., The Long Loneliness: The Autobiography of the Legendary Catholic Social Activist. 

     (1952)