Celebration of Life Week, one of the events and observances sponsored and promoted by the International Society of Friendship and Good Will, occurs during the first week in January, which has also been designed as Celebration of Life Month.
Celebration of Life – The Story behind the Sculpture
In downtown Columbus, near Veterans Memorial Coliseum, we find an eye-catching metal sculpture displayed again the skyline of the Capital City. Created by Alfred Tibor, a holocaust survivor, the statue depicts a woman lifting a child over her head and tells the story of early life in the town of Franklinton which grew into the city of Columbus.
www.waymarking.com provides photos and the following description of the bronze sculpture:
The plaque on the front reads:
"Celebration of Life
Arthur Boke Jr. was the first African-American resident of Franklinton, Ohio. His story tells far more than the color of his skin. It is a story of love, selflessness, compassion, and understanding expressed by Sarah Sullivant. Her example reaches out to humanity with a mother's pure love that accepts all human beings as equal, who share each other's burdens, listen to each other's stories, and learn what it is to live in harmony.
It was Sarah Sullivant, who with her husband Lucas - founder of Columbus, made the story of Arthur Boke, Jr.
In 1803, Sarah had just given birth to a son, when several days later she found at her doorstep an abandoned baby of a slave. It is what happened next that lifts the story into the rare.
Sarah, filled with the love for her own new-born son, could not bear to leave the abandoned baby without help. Urged on by a humanity very seldom seen in those days, she took the baby, and along with her own new son, nursed both to a strong and healthy childhood.
Named Arthur Boke, Jr. by the Sullivants, the baby was adopted by the family and lived as a son and brother until his passing in 1841. The Sullivant children, especially Joseph, whom Arthur helped raise as a loved brother, made sure Arthur was buried in the family plot. It was a testament to Arthur's inclusion in the Sullivant family. It was an example for future generations that love bridges even the deepest of divides.
Presented here as a modern tribute to the Sullivant's expression of love is "Celebration of Life," a sculpture celebrating the family's deed, and enshrined in bronze, a symbol of how all humankind can make this a better world, one child at a time. 2004 ”
Another plaque on the side reads:
"I am a survivor of the Holocaust, the worst genocide in history.
Hatred is destruction
I gained freedom when I came to the United States of America.
I donated this work to tell coming generations; "Freedom, hope and respect, celebrate life."
- Alfred Tibor - Sculptor
Here are some additional articles related to the subject:
http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-20264-Columbus-Christian-Spirituality...
http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-20264-Columbus-Christian-Spirituality...
http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-20264-Columbus-Christian-Spirituality...
“L’Chaim”—A Toast to Life
To celebrate this occasion, I offer a toast, “L’Chaim (the Hebrew expression which literally means “To life.”) "L’Chaim" reveals a lot about the Jewish approach to life. The phrase is not to a good life, to a healthy life, or even to a long life. It is simply to life, recognizing that life is indeed good and precious and should always be celebrated and savored. According to a noted Rabbi, "L’Chaim" means not "to life" as it is commonly translated, but "to lives"—to life in the plural: life in all its fullness, overflowing life that impacts others. No one could live life by themselves. We all need someone else. So there's no point in toasting life, because life that is not shared is unlivable. So in recognition of the Celebration of Life Week, the first week in the January, Celebration of Life Month, we offer a toast and say “L’Chaim!”
"I Speak Life"
As I celebrate life during January and every month, I endeavor to speak Life, while making declarations about life in the midst of a culture that seems absorbed with death. In the midst of an environment where dark forces would seek to release a spirit of death, we celebrate life and speak life to our towns and cities, to the states of our nation and indeed to the world. Let’s listen to “I Speak Life”— the title song from the CD by Donald Lawrence, featuring Donnie McClurkin, an appropriate song for “Celebration of Life Week.”
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