Renegade Absurdist

This summer we have celebrated the absurdity of modern life by making and sharing much DaDa poetry.

I furiously refilled my trusted DaDa box with massive amounts of clippings.  Maya needed supplies for a Community Writing Center kids' poetry workshop she co-lead during the Utah Arts Festival.  Editing the news with scissors is most pleasurable.

The Arts Festival is a four-day event, with something for everyone.  Maya has performed several years with Children's Dance Theatre.

Being in the spotlight is in her blood.  She definitely came here to be seen and heard.  Dance is one form of self-expression at which she excels.

Shouldn't everyone be seen and heard?

Each mind is unique, every perspective shaded from a different reference point.  If more people felt comfortable expressing themselves, we would all be richer.

Writing is another form of self-expression and communication that Maya enjoys.  She makes poems, writes short stories, picture books, cartoons, novels, and does a little blogging.  Organizations like the Community Writing Center provide a wonderful service to the people of SLC, and give kids like Maya an opportunity to share their passion with others.  We are both very happy to volunteer with them.  This year she did the DaDa Poetry workshop, and I lead a discussion with parents about incorporating writing into a family's life.

Here is a photo essay of the preparation Maya and her fellow CWC volunteer Ken did for the workshop:

Word Salad in the making!

Warming up with words

Rules?  NO RULES!

Write stuff, indeed.

A couple of weeks later, I participated in the Second Annual Utah Alternative Press Festival.  Brought my word casserole to the Main Library, and manned a table for the CWC.  Many random people made many random poems.  Little kids, homeless folks, hipsters, friends, and frenemies all united to decorate our area with spontaneous art.  One older gentleman who was initially reluctant to participate, and certain he would get nothing but nonsense, got so absorbed by the project he pulled up a chair to the middle of our small table and proceeded to work on his creation for a solid 45 minutes.  Then he read it aloud.  Again and again.  He went away.  He came back.  He read the poem aloud again.  A few people purposely returned with companions.  Photos were made.  Poems were left, poems were carried away. 

More than a few people asked, incredulously, "I just want to know who cut out all this stuff!?!" 

That would be me.

It's just another form of smashing things down to start something new.

Reduce (the power), Recycle (engage your creativity), Reuse (there is nothing new under the sun, except you.  Stand on your head sometimes.  Same stuff, different perspective).  

And if you haven't already done so, race to your local library and share in "Mimi's DaDa Catifesto" by Shelley Jackson (you probably thought I wasn't going to mention that!).  It's delicious!

The Golden Rule, From Atop a Great Big Soapbox

This morning I woke up feeling particularly sensitive to absurdity.  I apply my "doing is becoming" philosophy to all, as once you see significance in anything, you see it in everything.  The first few news stories I reflected upon today made me climb atop a great big soapbox.  Here's the result:

When you hear the phrase "new normal," you should realize you and your family are being sold lies based on fear and private greed.  It's your money.  It's your quality of life.  If you held the actual cash in your hand, how would you spend it?  Would you continue to kill children whose only crime was to be born in the wrong place at the wrong time?  Would you continue to send your neighbors' children into harm's way to intervene in a power struggle, or fight against tribal people, thousands of miles away from your home?  Would you give it all and promise more to the fattest guy in the biggest house at the end of the street?  Or would you provide clean water, food, clothing, medicine, housing, jobs, libraries, art, learning opportunities (insert what makes your life meaningful and livable here) to yourself and your immediate family?

What you would provide to your family is what you should extend to the collective family of humanity.  It's very simple.  It's the basic rule of every spiritual and ethical tradition known to mankind.  This rule doesn't specify "others whom are just like you."  It says very plainly and clearly, "Do unto others, as you would have others do unto you."  Just plain "others."  All others, no exceptions.

Why do you give up agency just because the dollars flow unseen from your electronic paycheck to a paid representative of the people and a treasurer far away?  Why do you let them scare you with their tales of woe?  Why do you believe the world will end if we don't do as legislatures and corporations say we must?  If they got us into this mess by misspending our money, why do we trust them with the solution?  In a democratic republic, it is the hired (elected) person's duty to be responsive to their constituents' actual needs, not to sell their version of reality to us and collect their fee.  Stop listening to opinion makers, and start reflecting and crafting your own ideas.  Share those ideas with others, especially your paid representative.  If they are unresponsive, vote them out of office.  It's a beautifully simple system.  All it requires is that you author your own life.  Care.  Share.  Act.  Cooperate and collaborate to build a livable world.  You will be enriched by it personally, and the globe will be a lot more welcoming.

So take a few minutes to reflect:

How many of us wake up each day and say we need to drop a bomb on someone to keep going?

How many of us wake up and say "I must eat"?

The answers are so obvious when you drop the news cycle rhetoric.

What are your actual needs?  Do you think there is a person on earth whose real human needs are any different?

Humans are storytellers by nature, always seeing meaning, but sometimes we forget who's telling the tale.  You are accountable for the narrative you live.  Choose well.