Posted October 3, 2012
With a half-moon arc of kids in front of him — eyes focused, faces intent, bodies gently swaying back and forth in time with the music — Dave DeGennero taps the keys of his piano for a fourth run through a song called “Legend of Calm.”
“Calm is a place where I’d like to go. Like a warm embrace, it comforts me so,” the kids sing, as DeGennero leads them. “It stills my harried heart so tossed about at sea. Calm, I’m sailing for thee.”
The song, written in part by the 30 kids signed up for the Monkey Mind Pirates puppet show program, is part of the show they’ll perform at the Lincoln Community Center. It mentions all the things in life the kids find calming. And it is part of a show steeped in themes of finding calm and reeling in a racing mind.
Monkey Mind Pirates, indeed, gets its name from the yoga term “monkey mind,” which refers to the state the mind can drift toward when distracted by anxiety, depression or ADHD.
It is a weeklong YMCA program where the kids meet for several hours each day. In addition to preparing for Friday’s puppet show, the week has been full of making new friends, learning the craft of puppet-making, and even a little yoga.
At Friday’s performance, the gist of the show will be this: A sea captain sets sail for the Legendary Waters of Calm. But en route, he gets sidetracked by a series of bugaboos known as Winston (named for Winston Churchill, who suffered from depression) Ansel (named for Ansel Adams, who suffered from attention deficit disorder) and Bront
