I sometimes joke, "We've all gots our religions, what's your today?" We each
do. If we continue to grow, what we believe in sometimes changes, but who we
are doesn't, only our proximity in understanding, does. Some mornings, when life
feels unorderly and I have not been following my routines, putting on face cream
can feel religious, like it is going to save me a little, but every day words are part of
my religion; what I expose myself to hear or read and what I speak.
I love words and engaging with people who also do. Today, with all of our
media inlets, we are overwhelmed; our mediums are becoming small and our
languaging myopic. More often we are hearing diction without density from a cold
automated expressionless voice. Last month I had a conversation, about why I
have not scheduled my pap smear, with an automated Blue Cross Blue Shield
machined feminine voice.
Art, when done well, adds warm context and understanding in the complexities
of being human. With the advent of machinery building more of our furniture and
voicing our words, our cultures temperature may be getting colder. We can
connect quicker, but with a cold gadget between us, so fewer hands, facial
expressions and bodies directly connect. With corporations owning many entities
our vocabulary inputs are coming from fewer sources. Is that healthy for all of us,
individually? How does change begin? First there is thought, then there is
speech. Where do words come from? From those who output.
I believe living breathing artists engaging locally are very important today. The
confluence of poetry and spoken word has risen again because it is necessary to
man’s steering and survival and to having words be weighted again. I encourage
each of you to create your art and warmly share it, in the every day and any way it
adds to humanity.