May 5th, 2009
Inspiring Women: Gemma Bulos An Interview, Part 1
The world is full of inspiring women. Some are historical figures, some are actors, writers, or politicians. Others are closer to home – our mothers, sisters, and friends. Recently, I had the pleasure of chatting with a Gemma Bulos, founder of A Single Drop and author of the guest post we ran on earth day. She’s a woman who has inspired many, both with her song, “We Rise,” and through her efforts to help people in underdeveloped areas gain access to clean water. In part one of our interview, we talked about her inspiration, her music, and how she’s been spending the last five years.
Tell me a little bit about yourself.
Well, if you had asked me five years ago what I’d be doing, I’d never in a million years have told you, “working in water.” My career before this was that I was a singer-songwriter – a professional singer – in New York, and also a pre-school teacher. And so, I was very far away from doing any kind of humanitarian work, or thinking about any kind of peace stuff, and then September 11th happened, and I was actually supposed to be in the building when the planes hit, with my - one of my preschool classes was downtown there, and it…it was the day that changed my entire life. It changed a lot of people’s lives.
How did that tragedy turn into a cause?
For me, whenever something like that happens, any kind of tragedy, I always believe there’s some sort of reason for it, some sort of inspiration that it’s supposed to bring me, some sort of light that will direct me in another way, whether it will be finding personal healing, or whether it be forgiveness, or…whatever. There’s always something there.
What I saw – and, this is what I chose to see – after September 11th, was that this tragedy brought all of these people together. It was amazing to be in New York at the time, and after September 11th, we could all of a sudden make eye contact again, and all of a sudden I could really feel like I was connected to everybody and not separated from everyone, and to know - before you would be in a subway and there were other people and you were completely separated from them, and then all of a sudden - we saw this in New York, and in the world, people were coming together because of their grief.
So, I needed to see that that was where the inspiration was. It was like, you know, this sadness brought all these people together. Wouldn’t it be amazing if we could find a good kind of connection again, only this time in celebration of how we are all the same, how we all need the same things, we want the same things, and if we just connected with each other in some small way, it could be one step toward the realization of peace?
And so you wrote a song?
Yes. In response, I wrote a song, and it was called “We Rise.” And it was all about – it basically turned into this huge peace effort – and I had this idea that I wanted to have people around the world, on one day, sing this song from all over the planet.
So I set the date, which was September 21, 2004, and I dropped everything after September 11th; I gave all my belongings away; I went on the road with no money, and I just had this idea that I was going to start being a crazy troubadour, and I was going to start going around the world, and asking people to sing it with us on that day.
Did everything go smoothly, or did you have difficulties?
I drove through ups and downs of my crazy doubts, and I remember one particular day, where I crossed over from hope to defeat because I was in an incredible amount of doubt, I had sung this song for a whole bunch of people I’d just met, and I finished the song, and they were all crying, and asking, “What are you doing with that song?”
And I said, “I’m supposed to build a million-voice choir. I don’t know how I’m gonna do it!”
And literally, two days later, I was about ready to drop everything and go back and get a job, and the whole thing, but I got a phone call from a friend of mine, and she was like, “I’m at the United Nations. They just called your song the new world anthem. Listen.” And she put the phone up, so I could hear.
And I was like, “Oh my God! It doesn’t even matter. I have to continue this.” The song already had a life of its own, and I sort of fancied myself like Frodo, and the song was the ring and I just needed to bring it where it needed to go.
So you began your real journey. Did you, like Frodo, have a fellowship backing you up?
From 2003-ish on, I completely just have been trusting in the Universe, and I just found that miracle after miracle after miracle was happening. People were hearing about me and giving me airline tickets, strangers were giving me thousands of dollars before I got on planes so I could get to my next destination. I was landing in cities and having no place to go, and meeting strangers in the street who knew about me and took me into their homes.
And we’re not just talking in the United States, we’re talking internationally. Having somebody like Jane Goodall – I met her and she was like, “Gemma, I’ve heard all about you.” It was crazy because the song just turned into this movement.
So the whole Universe is your Fellowship in a sense. What kept you going, kept you focused on the goal?
One of the reasons I continued on the way I did is because I met this really wonderful man named Satish Kumar. He was a Jain monk in the sixties, and a student of Gandhi, and he walked to all these cities in protest of nuclear arms, in non-violent protest, and he invited me to sing at a conference he was holding, and it so happened that it was about water.
After I told him what I was doing, he told me about his guru, and how before anyone takes on a major endeavor they have to get permission from their guru, and the guru of course says “Yes, you must do this, but you’ve got to do it with no money, because you have to believe that all human beings are good, and they’re kind, and that you will always be taken care of.”
And that’s what he told me. And that story always makes me get choked up. He told me, “That’s what you have to do.” And I did. And I literally – by the grace of God – have been travelling around the world with no money.
And he’s why you began working in water?
Yes. Well also the reason…the reason our mission turned into water is because of the song, because to me, the song’s core message is that it takes a single drop of water to form a wave. And one thought, one action, one idea, one person, is that single drop.
Part Two of our interview with Gemma will run next week. We’ll learn more about the organization A Single Drop and exactly what they do to help people gain access to clean water.
