Inspiring Arts
The Kirkos Caravan Storytelling Theater is inspired by an unique melange of classic and new circus arts, wandering minstrels, medieval morality plays, Commedia dell'Arte, family bands, Lebanese zaffe and dabke, and, of course, traditional storytelling. Many talented artists of all disciplines and diverse cultures and styles have crossed the Caravan's path over the years, leaving a bit of themselves behind in our imaginations and creations.
Inspiring Philosophies and Approaches
Providence-led learning is what we like to call our homeschool's educational philosophy. Over the years the project has been influenced by several different educational models and thinkers, including Charlotte Mason, Stratford Caldecott, Russell Kirk, Maria Montessori, Laura Ingalls Wilder, St. John Bosco, Playful Learning, Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, parochial Catholic schools, etc.- all with the understanding that parenting, education, socialization, emotional intelligence, and character and faith formation are inseparable, should be customized to fit each family and each child, and are the God-given vocation of every family.
Inspiring People
The Bambini
The Vivacious Duo- Magical Maya and Zany ZouZou- are the first inspiration for this project. As these two are naturally theatrical, artistically talented, and lovers of nature, creating a school that specializes in homesteading and storytelling theater was simply an educational extension of their everyday activities on our farm in Michigan and in the city of Rome. The sweet little sisters Valentina and Cordelia have added their own special talents and charm to the growing troupe. As a traveling family with dual citizenship and jobs in a third country, it was also important for us to consciously cultivate a family culture that incorporated our three cultures- American, Lebanese, and Italian- into a single family identity.
The Vivacious Duo- Magical Maya and Zany ZouZou- are the first inspiration for this project. As these two are naturally theatrical, artistically talented, and lovers of nature, creating a school that specializes in homesteading and storytelling theater was simply an educational extension of their everyday activities on our farm in Michigan and in the city of Rome. The sweet little sisters Valentina and Cordelia have added their own special talents and charm to the growing troupe. As a traveling family with dual citizenship and jobs in a third country, it was also important for us to consciously cultivate a family culture that incorporated our three cultures- American, Lebanese, and Italian- into a single family identity.
Russell Kirk
A Sage, Storyteller, Debater, and Man of Letters, Russell Kirk was also the father of the Ringmistress, and the grandfather of the youngest members of the Kirkos Caravan. He often used to joke that all the students and seekers who found their way to Piety Hill, his ancestral home, were students of the "Russell Kirk School of Magical, Mystical Knowledge". The Kirkos Caravan brings this make-believe school to life by creatively conveying Kirkian concepts to kids, drawing upon his imagination, example, and legacy. For more information on Michigan's Greatest Man of Letters (by joint resolution of the House and Senate), look no further than the excellent resource center established by his widow, Annette Kirk: www.kirkcenter.org.
A Sage, Storyteller, Debater, and Man of Letters, Russell Kirk was also the father of the Ringmistress, and the grandfather of the youngest members of the Kirkos Caravan. He often used to joke that all the students and seekers who found their way to Piety Hill, his ancestral home, were students of the "Russell Kirk School of Magical, Mystical Knowledge". The Kirkos Caravan brings this make-believe school to life by creatively conveying Kirkian concepts to kids, drawing upon his imagination, example, and legacy. For more information on Michigan's Greatest Man of Letters (by joint resolution of the House and Senate), look no further than the excellent resource center established by his widow, Annette Kirk: www.kirkcenter.org.
Inspiring Themes
On Family
As with Circus acts, the experience of being part of a family fluctuates continually between the sublime and the ridiculous.
“Family, become what you are!” -Blessed John Paul II
“From the sublime to the ridiculous is but one step.” -Napoleon Bonaparte
“No one is saved alone, as an isolated individual, but God attracts us looking at the complex web of relationships that take place in the human community. God enters into this dynamic, this participation in the web of human relationships.” -Pope Francis to Antonio Spadaro, SJ
On Farming and Virtue
“‘Learn from the farmer,’” St. James writes, ‘he awaits with constancy the precious fruit of the earth until it has received the first and the last rains. You too must be constant, strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near’ (James 5:7-8). The comparison with the farmer is quite expressive: He who has sown seeds in the field has before him some months of patient and constant expectation, but he knows that in the meantime the seed goes through its cycle thanks to the autumn and spring rains. The farmer is not a fatalist, but is the model of a mentality that unites faith and reason in a balanced way because, on one hand, he knows the laws of nature and does his work well, and, on the other hand, he trusts in Providence, because certain basic things are not in his hands but in God's hands. Patience and constancy are precisely the synthesis between human effort and trust in God.”
-Pope Benedict XVI
On the Moral Imagination
“ The moral imagination aspires to the apprehending of right order in the soul and right order in the commonwealth. This moral imagination was the gift and the obsession of Plato and Virgil and Dante. Drawn from centuries of human consciousness, these concepts of the moral imagination...are expressed afresh from age to age.” -Russell Kirk
On Life as a Pilgrimage
Life is a Teleological Journey around a great circle, to end where we have begun.
“We shall not cease from exploration/And at the end of all our exploring/Will be to arrive where we started/And know the place for the first time.” ~T.S. Eliot
“To go in a spirit of prayer from one place to another, from one city to another, to an area marked especially by God’s intervention, helps us not only to live our life as a journey, but also gives us a vivid sense of a God who has gone before us and leads us on, who himself set out on man’s path; a God who does not look down on us from on high, but who became our traveling companion.” -St. Pope John Paul II
“Conversion is never once and for all but is a process, an interior journey through the whole of life...it is a daily journey that must embrace the entire span of existence, every day of life...What does ‘to be converted’ actually mean? It means seeking God, moving with God, docily following the teachings of his Son, Jesus Christ; to be converted is not a work for self-fulfillment because the human being is not the architect of his own eternal destiny. We did not make ourselves. Therefore, self fulfillment is a contradiction and is also too little for us. We have a loftier destination. We might say that conversion consists precisely in not considering ourselves as our own ‘creators’ and thereby discovering the truth, for we are not the authors of ourselves. Conversion consists in freely and lovingly accepting to depend in all things on God, our true Creator, to depend on love. This is not dependence but freedom.”
--Pope Benedict XVI
On Storytelling
Storytelling is an enduring, effective, and magical educational tool.
“Life itself is the most wonderful fairytale of all.” —Hans Christian Andersen
“The destiny of the world is determined less by the battles that are lost and won than by the stories it loves and believes in.” —Harold Goddard
“If you don’t know the trees you may be lost in the forest, but if you don’t know the stories you may be lost in life.” —Siberian saying
As with Circus acts, the experience of being part of a family fluctuates continually between the sublime and the ridiculous.
“Family, become what you are!” -Blessed John Paul II
“From the sublime to the ridiculous is but one step.” -Napoleon Bonaparte
“No one is saved alone, as an isolated individual, but God attracts us looking at the complex web of relationships that take place in the human community. God enters into this dynamic, this participation in the web of human relationships.” -Pope Francis to Antonio Spadaro, SJ
On Farming and Virtue
“‘Learn from the farmer,’” St. James writes, ‘he awaits with constancy the precious fruit of the earth until it has received the first and the last rains. You too must be constant, strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near’ (James 5:7-8). The comparison with the farmer is quite expressive: He who has sown seeds in the field has before him some months of patient and constant expectation, but he knows that in the meantime the seed goes through its cycle thanks to the autumn and spring rains. The farmer is not a fatalist, but is the model of a mentality that unites faith and reason in a balanced way because, on one hand, he knows the laws of nature and does his work well, and, on the other hand, he trusts in Providence, because certain basic things are not in his hands but in God's hands. Patience and constancy are precisely the synthesis between human effort and trust in God.”
-Pope Benedict XVI
On the Moral Imagination
“ The moral imagination aspires to the apprehending of right order in the soul and right order in the commonwealth. This moral imagination was the gift and the obsession of Plato and Virgil and Dante. Drawn from centuries of human consciousness, these concepts of the moral imagination...are expressed afresh from age to age.” -Russell Kirk
On Life as a Pilgrimage
Life is a Teleological Journey around a great circle, to end where we have begun.
“We shall not cease from exploration/And at the end of all our exploring/Will be to arrive where we started/And know the place for the first time.” ~T.S. Eliot
“To go in a spirit of prayer from one place to another, from one city to another, to an area marked especially by God’s intervention, helps us not only to live our life as a journey, but also gives us a vivid sense of a God who has gone before us and leads us on, who himself set out on man’s path; a God who does not look down on us from on high, but who became our traveling companion.” -St. Pope John Paul II
“Conversion is never once and for all but is a process, an interior journey through the whole of life...it is a daily journey that must embrace the entire span of existence, every day of life...What does ‘to be converted’ actually mean? It means seeking God, moving with God, docily following the teachings of his Son, Jesus Christ; to be converted is not a work for self-fulfillment because the human being is not the architect of his own eternal destiny. We did not make ourselves. Therefore, self fulfillment is a contradiction and is also too little for us. We have a loftier destination. We might say that conversion consists precisely in not considering ourselves as our own ‘creators’ and thereby discovering the truth, for we are not the authors of ourselves. Conversion consists in freely and lovingly accepting to depend in all things on God, our true Creator, to depend on love. This is not dependence but freedom.”
--Pope Benedict XVI
On Storytelling
Storytelling is an enduring, effective, and magical educational tool.
“Life itself is the most wonderful fairytale of all.” —Hans Christian Andersen
“The destiny of the world is determined less by the battles that are lost and won than by the stories it loves and believes in.” —Harold Goddard
“If you don’t know the trees you may be lost in the forest, but if you don’t know the stories you may be lost in life.” —Siberian saying
Inspiring Places, Causes, Organizations
-The Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal www.kirkcenter.org
-The Imaginative Conservative Blog www.imaginativeconservative.org
-Aleteia Catholic News Network www.aleteia.org
-The Thomas More College of Liberal Arts www.thomasmorecollege.edu
-The Mecosta Book Village Project www.facebook.com/mecostabookvillageproject
-Wheatland Music Organization www.wheatlandmusic.org
-Mecosta Revitalization www.facebook.com/mecostarevitalization
-Mecosta, Michigan http://www.michigan.org/city/mecosta/
-The Mecosta Book Gallery http://www.mecostabooks.com/
-Morton Township library www.morton.michlibrary.org
-Remus, Michigan www.remus.org