{"id":212,"date":"2025-05-07T20:18:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-07T20:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/juliaholt.dcreate.domains\/?page_id=212"},"modified":"2025-05-08T05:30:56","modified_gmt":"2025-05-08T05:30:56","slug":"non-textual-lillies-pond-scums","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/juliaholt.dcreate.domains\/?page_id=212","title":{"rendered":"Non-Textual: Lilies & Pond Scums"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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In my second semester at Davidson College I joined a Patterson Court Council (PCC) organization, Turner Eating House. PCC organizations provide students with a smaller community to learn and grow with. The organizations hold social gatherings, plan community service opportunities, and provide meals to their members. Turner Eating House is open to women and gender minorities and has a focus on Community Care. One way that Turner fosters its own community is through a tradition known as Lilies and Pond Scums. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lilies and Pond Scums gives every member a chance to have their voice heard at our weekly house meeting. A \u201cLily\u201d is a good thing that happened to you that week or a compliment you want to give to a friend. A \u201cPond Scum\u201d is something bad that happened that week or anything you are stressed about. A form is sent out before each meeting and members have the option to submit their own Lilies and Pond Scums. At the end of the meeting each Lily is read by the senior representatives and the whole house claps once after each one. When the pond scums are read there is no clap. This small action allows the short stories and emotions of each member to be easily shared and affirmed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This ritual demonstrates how personal testimonies are used to build community. Though Lilies and Pond Scums are typically only a sentence long, they still communicate something important from a member\u2019s life. Sharing how your week is going with others can help you feel seen and bring the whole community closer through your testimony. The Pond Scums allow for other members to relate to what someone may be struggling with. The Lilies allow for victories to be shared with everyone, creating an atmosphere of positivity and support for each person. No story is deemed more important than others; each Lily gets the same clap; This activity puts people in conversation with every member, not just their tight circle in the house. It connects us all through our shared experiences and our collective empathy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My collage depicts the importance of making space for the individual testimonies in a community. I used paint, construction paper, magazine clippings, and artificial plants to create the image. In the collage the lilies and pond scums work together to create a cohesive image, in the same way that positive and negative testimonies are equally valuable when fostering community. I plan to hang this poster in Turner, to remind members of the importance of their lilies and pond scums.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In my second semester at Davidson College I joined a Patterson Court Council (PCC) organization, Turner Eating House. PCC organizations provide students with a smaller community to learn and grow with. The organizations hold social gatherings, plan community service opportunities, and provide meals to their members. Turner Eating House is open to women and gender… Continue reading Non-Textual: Lilies & Pond Scums<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-212","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juliaholt.dcreate.domains\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/juliaholt.dcreate.domains\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/juliaholt.dcreate.domains\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juliaholt.dcreate.domains\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juliaholt.dcreate.domains\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=212"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/juliaholt.dcreate.domains\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/212\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":249,"href":"https:\/\/juliaholt.dcreate.domains\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/212\/revisions\/249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juliaholt.dcreate.domains\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}