Through The Skin

With such people in it.

Just finished Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World.  I felt compelled to write, although I am unsure if any will listen.  Still, I’ll toss these words into the cyber dark . . .

This country, our country, that is to say the North America that I see, is locked in a civil war.  This war is unseen and subtle,  inevitable and ultimetly destructive if we continue on our current course.  I say we because, like any nation of peoples, all of us have a stake in the future – from the homeless to the powerful and every wage slave in between. 

I have often been confronted with the question, “well, what will you do about it?”  Well, I will record it and reinact it as best I can, in the hopes that future generations will interprit and learn from past mistakes.  What else can an artist do but survive, observe, record, and reinterprit?  That is, aside from the general way an individual goes about living daily life,  which I am still learning and probably will be for the rest of my days and nights.

Our current War on Terror is only a part of the greater theater of this conflict.  Consider who you are, consider how you were made, consider what you are becoming.  In truth, most of us are far too busy with ourselves and our families to really spend any time in the trenches of self reflection.  However, it precisely in those trenches that this war is being fought.  For those of you who know of what I speak, you also know that we are woefully out numbered.  For those of you who don’t know, you are either weary from battle or inadvertently wielding power for the opposite faction.

Factions?  What factions?  Red or Blue?  Conservative or Liberal?  Poor or Rich?  White or Black Spanish Chinese Gay American?  For lack of a better term I shall call this conflict The Heroic American War on Thought or THAWT for short.  The factions are far too grey and blurry to be catororgized in the simple terms as listed above.  The first thing we have to realize about current American society is its complexity.  No one here is black or white or good or evil.  These terms will not do.  We’ll use much broader terms to describe our factions. Thanks to my brillaint Lady Love, Es Swihart, we’ll call the two factions the seekers and the non-seekers.

Let’s take, rather, a more humanist point of view about THAWT.  After all, it is a fact that our nation gets the least amount of vacation time a year – 25 days on average – versus the record held by Finland – 45 days on average – of necessary days off in a year.  Of ranking countries we are the lowest.  What would people do with all that time?  Please understand that just like singer-song writer Ani Difranco, I do love my country.  I do.  So often dissidence in our portion of the Americas is interprited as hate for the United States.  It is the exact opposite.  Love often involves opposition.

Also note that of voting nations, we are the only one, who does not possess health-care.  We’re talking about having it, so we think we do have it, but we do not have it.

All of this is a product in the secret war being fought amongst seekers and non-seekers in the war on THAWT which is going on, right now.   I am not suggesting that this is a struggle between the intellects and the practical thinkers of our age.  My father is a practical thinker.  I understand them well.  He also has a great sense of humor.  I think that might go hand in hand with practical thinking.  No, I like Lynard Skinner’s Simple Man in every way.  Ours is not a battle between the intellects and the practical, it is a battle between the unaware and the aware or the educated and the ignorant.  A person can choose to be simple or eloquent, they cannot choose between being aware or unaware.

If we have enough seekers, if we have enough people who are aware, then our problems, despite certain quagmires, will solve themselves.  Simply because conversation and not 1 ups-man-ship will take place.  You cannot share a conversation with someone who does not understand you.  Or with someone who is willng to not understand you.  If this occurs only Socarates will prevail.

So what is the war on THAWT?  Who are the seekers and non-seekers?  The difference is not between those who desire sexual conquest, money, power, vices of every kind and incriment.  That is a refinement our world is not ready for.  The difference is simply betweent those who risk and those who do not.  Nothing undertaken in life cannot be destroyed.  Every statue can be transformed into a universe by the steady strokes of a sledge hammer.  The same statue can be reinterprited by another artist, different but the same.  Where does the hesitation lie?  Es always says that ‘hesitation is the killer of transcendance’.  Transcendence is a big word. 

  1 a: exceeding usual limits : surpassing b: extending or lying beyond the limits of ordinary experience cin Kantian philosophy : being beyond the limits of all possible experience and knowledge2: being beyond comprehension3: transcending the universe or material existence.

I think the word is decieving because it implies surpassing somebody else.  I desire more than the next person.  We all feel this way because of struggle.  The idea of struggle is being used against the non-seeking protion of our nation.  It is being manipulated.  It is called The American Dream.  This dream is a good one.  It is wholesome to the max.  However, no matter how it is observed it is unachievable by the masses who desire it so wantonely.  With such abandon that they are programmed, through the media (which includes the news, mass entertainment or movies, theatre, television, all advertisement, and the entire marketing industry) to desire it without any consideration for the quality of life they are currently living.

Non-seekers only seek to obtain the American Dream as it is defined for them.  So rigid is the indoctrination that they are taught to belong to a team.  Good vs. Evil, White vs. Black Spanish Chinese Gay American.  It doesn’t matter.  Pick a team.  A people are more easily controled when they are divided.  Everybody is taught to seek the American Dream.

This is not a news flash.  It has been hashed out before by better minds than mine.  However, it is on my mind.  The difference between seekers and non-seekers in the war on THAWT shall continue next time.  For now, merely consider who, what, and how, you are what you are.  The rest will take care of itself.  Much love and light. 

The third definition of the word ‘faith’ in Webster’s reads as follows, “2 a (1) : belief and trust in and loyalty to God (2) : belief in the traditional doctrines of a religion b (1) : firm belief in something for which there is no proof (2) : complete trust.”  The second reads thus, “3 : something that is believed especially with strong conviction; especially : a system of religious beliefs.”  The first definition of the word faith, within Webster’s Dictionary reads, “1 a : allegiance to duty or a person : LOYALTYb (1) : fidelity to one’s promises (2) : sincerity of intentions.”  I found this fairly interesting.  I think the people on this side of the pond have long been taught it is important to have faith, and it is, but little attention is paid to the question, “Faith in what?”

The system in this nation would have you believe that your self worth-success-is dictated by the amount of money in your wallet.  Make no mistake, the way things are set up, it is.  At least in the minds of many people who are systematically taught to think within the box and subsequently rewarded for that way of thinking.  In other words you are being trained to believe that money is the center of success.  Some people are trying very hard to make you think differently but ultimately, in your day to day life, you are being conditioned to have faith in money. 

This happens very subtly; on the television, in magazines, on the street in shop windows, with your individual heroes and subsequently in your day to day discussions with your friends, with your parents, what, where, and how you are taught to eat and drink . . . nothing is direct.  That’s the beauty of capitalism.  It is your choice, isn’t it?

Let’s take something simple, like clothes shopping, your “image.”  Who really dictates that?  You?  The company?  Your boss?  Us? Social pressure? Fashion designers?  The Gap?  Do any of us really decide just ‘how’ we will look?  You can only choose from the options that are given to you.  This holds true for every action you take in life.  Doesn’t that mean you place your faith in someone or something else, not yourself?

I don’t have much more tonight.  My friend, Lauren Cauldwell, told me a story about England.  They apparently, recently, did a poll there about the state of the arts.  You see, in England, everyone is given the option to donate money to the arts on there tax form.  Much like we are given the option to donate three dollars for electoral activities in our own great nation.  If you didn’t know this, please take a second look at your tax form next year, anyhow they polled the general populace of London.  They asked a bunch of people whether or not they attended events within the arts (dance, museums, theatre, etc) and if they minded checking the box that would send there tax dollars to the arts.  Now here’s the interesting part.  A whole heap of folks said they didn’t attend the arts but they would gladly donate tax money to the arts.  When asked why, they simply said, “because it makes our country less barbaric.” 

I began speaking about faith and I will end with it.  This is truth.  I do not know the answers to the questions raised above, but I do know this:  They can be found by funding public education and the Arts.  Now some of you may say I am biased to the latter, and that’s true, but only because I know what it can provide for our communities.  Important questions are raised and sometimes you agree and sometimes you do not but the point is that the matter is discussed.  Does this need to happen at every night of theatre?  Preferably, in my opinion, yes but entertainment is also necessary.  Very necessary.  Notice that the public is not often allowed to choose between the two though.  Between content and entertainment.  Ideally this is provided with every show but that’s not always the case.  Sometimes a show is mounted simply because they know it will make money and we’re all taught that money is self-worth.  Self-worth only has to do with the individual.  So, you decide.  You demand.  Speak but say something.  If you don’t the system will continue to decide for you and then tell you that you decided.  Much love and light America, good-night.               

This one goes out to Jeff Hanson specifically, and everyone else I love. 

I did not intend for this to become a personal journal, but it’s far too tempting, and some things just need to be shared with the world; at least with my world.  If we’re really honest with each other, what else is there but our own private universes?

It’s somewhat appropriate since we ended with a discussion of unity.  Is unity within the arts possible?  Like so many political realities in our lives it really depends upon ourselves and our ability, if you’ll excuse the cliche, to pay it forward. 

There is an irony, an understanding, and a necessity of comprehension that must occur if you are to understand this particular “blog”.  The irony is that Jeff, who is the first person to respond to that entry I wrote in what seems like a month ago maybe two, is someone I haven’t spoken to in . . . in far too long. Nor is he a fellow thespian, although he is one of the most creative persons I have ever known.  I must admit that if it wasn’t for him, I may never have found my confidence and if I hadn’t found my confidence, I most certainly wouldn’t be sacrificing myself to the God(ess) of theatre.  He is, and always has been, a remarkable man and I hope that all of you who may or may not be reading my writing may get a chance to meet him.  Simply because I know you will be better from the experience. 

But we were speaking of unity, unity and our universes, and all the succucess that abide therein.   Unity comes with understanding and understanding has to be achieved with trust.  All the people who I have been blessed to know in life, who bring meaning to my life, have done so with a sense of trust that I do the same for them.  It is reciprocal and unspokenly so.  At some point it occured to me to list them but then I realized I would be doing a great disservice to those people.  Simply because, they know who they are and they know if I speak of them.  I have learned so much from all of them.  I have learned to be myself.  I hope I have helped to do the same for all of them. 

We have to believe and CREATE unity and trust.  If our government understands anything, if it fears any one thing, it fears unity.  “A government should be afraid of its people, a people should not be afraid of its government.”  The government understands unity.  It understands unity.  It understands numbers.  Quantitive Decision Making.  It is the last weapon available to us that will truly battle the mass misinformation and division that plagues our nation.  I’m not talking about my side vs. yours.  That is why I used the word create.  Creation is a struggle of one kind or another.  It will not be easy.         

I love the sound of rain on asphalt.  I suppose many creative minds do.  It is calming and natural.  Chaotic and orderly at the same time. 

I have three admissions to make before anyone who cares to read any of this (including myself) reads it.  The first is that I am a horrible speller and my grammar is probably below par.  Forgive my trespasses.  The second is that this blog will most likely not be updated on a regular basis.  Although, at the moment I am excited, so I may surprise even myself.  Finally, I have avoided this for a long time.  Why?

That’s a good question to start with.  The answer is fairly simple:  Fear.  I’ve been thinking sort of like medieval China – “You have thoughts, build a wall, keep them secure, safe, unstolen.”  Needless to say, that way of pondering is not getting me anywhere.  This seems to be an age of sharing, of electronic unity, and I can only hope that when the fossil fuels finally fire up, and the planet cooks us, we’ll make a fine omelet and not a crispy bunch of fried eggs.  What a terrible metaphor.  It’ll get better, I promise.   

Who am I speaking too?  Well, anyone who listens.  I should also warn you that this blog is most likely going to turn into an outlet for disastrous theory on art as I painfully attempt to grow in my understanding of “it”.  Still, I’m hoping to start a dialogue and eventually unite all the artistic minds of the world into one resounding voice for gigantic worldwide social change.  A lofty goal, I suppose, but I’m told it’s important to have one.  Or maybe I just want to become famous, pay my student debt off in one single blow, and pretend like future generations will care about my contributions to humankind.  I haven’t really decided yet. 

At this point, if you’re still reading, I hope you have some idea what you’re in for.  Maybe this wasn’t such a great idea, oh well, nothing ventured nothing gained.  Somebody wrote that once and it’s well known.  Would they have blogged?  Would you?  It’s the modern existential question! 

Well, I think we’ve covered pretension well enough, let’s move on to unity.  Art is by nature pretentious.  So we should not ridicule our artists for seeming so.  Creation demands courage because it produces judgement.  If you can’t come to terms with that than you probably should not be an artist.  None of us take criticism well, unless it’s framed in a positive manner, but it’s a fact of life.  What good is the great American novel if you keep it tucked under your bed for ten thousand years for only a race of advanced ape-like humanoids to find and decipher in some kind of sci-fi future?  Art is pretentious.  You are creating something that is a statement about yourself or the world around you.  If you can tell me the difference I’ll give you a cookie.  Cookies aside, you have to put it out there in order for it to have an impact.  Whether that impact be sheer entertainment or universal human truth is your choice.  Sometimes we’re lucky enough to get both. 

So if Art is pretentious, how is unity possible?  That’s a cliff hanger.  Please share if you know the answer, especially if you know the answer, because then I can steal it and try to make money.  If you don’t have one I’ll do my best next time.