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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Valley&State Backpage O&E Sports Archives Classifieds Faith&Beliefs Obituaries Revels April 8, 2004 A time for questions Andrew Scot Bolsinger Ashland Daily Tidings For Horizon Institute, questions are the source. They're the big questions. Who are we? Where did we come from? Where are we going? And everybody's got an answer. They come at us from all kinds of sources: pulpits, classrooms, politicians, scientists - even advertising. But Horizon Institute thinks the real values lie in the questions, rather than having the right answer. It's worth asking those questions again and again. Every April, the Ashland-based organization invites the community to delve into the question, "What does it mean to be human?" This year they've raised the ante by asking: "What could it mean to be fully human?" Heady stuff. But Horizon executive director and founder Richard Moeschl is quick to point out that Horizon gets very festive in November. That's when the non-profit cultural and educational organization holds its annual "An Evening in Celebration of the Human Spirit" at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival's Angus Bowmer Theatre. That event draws community members together to enjoy the talents of the area's actors, dancers, musicians, poets and painters. This year's event will take place on Saturday, Nov. 6. "In November we celebrate our humanity," Moeschl said, "in April we explore it." In comparison with November, April's program is a non-event. There's no big show to see. What happens is mostly an internal experience, focused on those questions. The questions are the event. "We want people to drive under the banner, see that question and grapple with it," Moeschl said. The banner will hang across Main Street for the first week in April. After that, posters in store windows around town will also pose the question. Bloomsbury Books will feature a display in its window of books staff members have selected that address the theme of what it means to be human. In addition, the book store is hosting a poetry reading on the theme at 7:30 p.m. Friday, April 23 featuring 11 local poets. The staff at DJ's Videos - as they did last year - has posted a list of films that speak to the theme and is inviting customers to add to the list. The month-long, community-wide exploration is nested in between a number of citywide activities that seem quite compatible. The window display and poetry reading at Bloomsbury fit right in with April being National Poetry Month. The "Human Spirit" art exhibit at Hanson Howard Gallery will be up all month and be a part of the Taste of Ashland, which takes place April 24 and 25. The show's flier states: "In championing the examined life, we invite you to pause and reflect, see where these questions lead, then respond in any way you find meaningful." The month's theme will also be discussed on Jeff Golden's Jefferson Exchange call-in radio program at 9 a.m. and again at 9 p.m. Monday, April 19, on KSJK, 1250 AM. Guests will be Moeschl and Unitarian Universalist Minister Patt Herdklotz. Both will field questions. More questions. What does it mean to be a human in the context of the business world? The health-care community? As a family member? A voter? Horizon hopes people will respond in some way: a new conversation, an essay, a story, a poem or a play; paint, sculpt, compose music, choreograph a dance, take photographs or make a film. "We're stirring the pot," said board member and business entrepreneur Paul Hwoschinsky. "We have no way of measuring the success of what we're doing. As the poet Rilke says, we're simply living with the questions rather than rushing to the answers." For information about Horizon and its April exploration, visit the Web site www.thehorizon.org DailyTidings.com Home Page Valley&State | Backpage | O&E | Sports | Archives | Weather | Classifieds Columnists | Faith&Beliefs | Obituaries | Revels | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2004 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Click Here Site Search: .:Advertisements:. RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams