I'm sitting on the plane flying back to the States. I travel a lot, so I am used to the routine of leaving home, immersing in a place for a brief, intense experience and then reintegrating into daily life at home. I always greet these transitions with mixed emotions. Before leaving there's the stress of tying up loose ends and packing, tempered with the excitement of the trip. While at my destination there are always days filled with both the joy of creation and the stress of getting everything scheduled and accomplished in a finite block of time. I usually travel with a project that must get finished. This trip was no exception. I get a great deal of satisfaction being inspired by the places I visit and figuring out how to relate to them creatively. By contrast, when I travel without a creative agenda I am easily bored and often look forward to the trip ending.
When I return home there are also mixed emotions. At this point the creative work begins in earnest and that is often daunting. Will I be able to finish a project in time to a certain standard? And there is also the re-establishment of daily routine (such as household chores, working out, walking the dog, juggling other projects put on hold for the duration of the trip, etc). It always takes a few days before I am fully functioning again. It's good to get back but I often long for the uncluttered laser focus of a trip in support of a creative project.
Regarding examples of socially responsible leadership, I found them in the nonprofits we visited (Cat and Caritas). I also found it at Saint Martin's in Florence. Of particular interest to me was how each of them used story in the execution of their mission. I hope to explore this in a video piece, but in brief Caritas used artwork to create an inviting space, telling a story of welcome which precedes healing. Cat used art such as rap music and street performance as a way to connect with people and begin crafting new narratives for both the populations they were reaching out to and the larger groups that interacted with those populations. And the church at St. Martin's used the story of Saint Martin's Life as a definitional structure to model their charitable activities on. Many of the characteristics of socially responsible leadership are exhibited by these organizations (such as commitment, understanding the perspective of others, citizenship, collaboration, etc).
Of equal interest to me (and something I hope to explore through video) are how the triumvirate of government, religion, and commerce have used story from the Roman Empire to the Renaissance to further their particular aims. These uses of story have not always been in support of socially responsible goals, but they do show the power and importance of story and hint at potential uses of story aimed at more socially responsible goals…