Oh, the Thrills of Wonderroot

Well, as it takes more time than I thought to find a job in this city, I've had the pleasure to use my time wisely. Yesterday, I visited Wonderroot, a non-profit organization that believes in the good of Atlanta, the hope that the city and community can change and the people can work together to see it happen. It's a social movement where the people bounded by the city walls unite and give back to the community. And more so than visited, I volunteered. It felt great. To get out of the confines of my bedroom and really do something other than look desperately for a job. So today, I'm talking about getting out there, doing something with your time that brings happiness and a reflection on your life and the ways you go about living. It's funny, I got a design job offered to me when I least expected it at Wonderroot. Don't be afraid. Take the challenge and see where you land. You can always pick up your things and leave, but at least you tried. 

I really like the original Wonderroot t-shirts - a big messy fully-loaded sandwich with mustard dripping down the sides of the bread. Yum. But it makes you think about what these shirts meant to the Madmen (see reference below) of Wonderroot. Three best friends, who wanted to see something greater in Atlanta, started handing out sandwiches to the homeless. From summers to fall, they would gather street teams and around midnight, when it was dark out and the city glistened with heat and litter, these soul searchers walked the parking decks and abandoned buildings, handing out fresh-made turkey on whites for the begging hands that woke at the scent of real food. I see true heroism. And this one simple act of goodness led Alex West, Chris Appleton and Witt Wisebram to build something they could see brewing on the horizon. A community center that for them was an outlet for Atlanta to rebuild itself as a beautiful and homogenous city, full of life and laughter and morality. The less fortunate working together with the more fortunate and vice versa. Art, service, music, community, activism, communication, and sharing all under the same roof. It is a triumphant dream and one day I hope to be apart of it. Apart of it all.

"The important thing is this: to be able at any moment to sacrifice what we are for what we could become."

- Charles Dubois

WonderRoot was named "Atlanta's Best Arts Advocate" in Creative Loafing's Best of Poets, Artists & Madmen (Readers' Pick) 2008.