You're a part of this world...well, aren't you?

[ebonlock]

Quick LOTR snippet here, read Faramir's scenes through the Google translator clicky please.

And the Ten Minute Version of TTT



I'd been pondering Senator Byrd's words all evening, trying to figure out my apathy and cynicism for all things political in the past few years. What struck me is that back in NY I used to be quite the little activist. I spent two years in the College of Environmental Science and Forestry prepared to become a crusader for nature. Then I realized I wasn't cut out for the hard sciences and shifted back to my first love, art, or more specifically art history, got my degree, and set up and ran a museum. I got to interact with the community, and my favorite thing to do was to lead school groups around. Passing on information to kids, figuring out ways to spark their imaginations and keep them interested made me feel like I was giving something back to the world.

I've been very lucky in life, and since moving out here to the west coast I haven't had to do much in the way of struggling. Being freed up from the burden of just making enough to survive felt almost decadent, and I will admit I wallowed in it for a good long time. Several years in fact. But I noticed that this contentment was turning into complacency, I just didn't know what to do about it. Well being depressed for the past few years hasn't helped.

What I noticed, though, is that along with this apathy I was losing touch with the things I loved, my art, my political activism, and even my religion. They're all tied together, they're all a part of what makes me me, if you know what I mean.

I've given a lot of ideas lip-service recently, I've wanted to do a lot of things and have actually done very few. Dancing has been great, having more creative outlets is a wonderful thing, but I've been using it as an escape. A way to avoid dealing with the loss of so many other elements of my life, and essential elements too.

I'm no longer idealistic or naive enough to think I can change the world all by myself. I got that out of my system in college, thankfully. And maybe I can't do everything I might want to, but I can start making some
changes and taking some positive steps today. Not tomorrow, not next week, not in a few months, today.

The steps I intend to take aren't really all that important, and I'm not going to bore anyone (too late!) with more details than necessary. But it's high time I rejoined the human race and stopped being a cynical, bitter, angry hermit. There's a lot of bad stuff out there, a lot of pain, but there's a great deal of good too. And dammit, it's worth figting for.

Oh jeez, now I sound like Samwise...

Comments

[xleste.livejournal.com]

There are worse people to sound like. =)

And it IS worth fighting for... Sometimes my parents have told me I'm too idealistic and need to be more realistic about our government, what the world /should/ be like, because it's just the way it is...

But people NEED dreamers, to hold up something else...even if it's as simple as just trying to be a positive person in other people's lives. I've realized as I've been getting older that time is too short (esp while in grad school!) for me to not seek out and hold in my heart people who lift me and other people up, who are generally positive people in the world. Being one inspires other people...I like people who struggle to shine, who allow themselves to shine, because it gives other people around them permission to do the same in a society that seems much more bent on tearing other people down. That, for me, is a start in really changing the world.

Re:

[ebonlock.livejournal.com]

I like people who struggle to shine, who allow themselves to shine, because it gives other people around them permission to do the same in a society that seems much more bent on tearing other people down. That, for me, is a start in really changing the world.


And a very good start it is, no question about it. I think to a great degree we've all accepted the fact that we can do nothing, that our actions have no greater effect on the world at large than that of a pebble tossed into the ocean. But what we fail to see is that the greatest changes that have ever occurred in the world start with just one person. They start with an idea, a thought, a feeling.

We are, none of us, helpless to make our lives and those of others better.

[tersa.livejournal.com]

I'm no longer idealistic or naive enough to think I can change the world all by myself...And maybe I can't do everything I might want to, but I can start making some changes and taking some positive steps today.

I think Galadriel summed it up best. And I may munge the quote:

"Even the smallest person can change the world."

I took this in the same spirit as 'if everyone who didn't think they could make a difference would try, they'd make a difference'.

Bravo! I would not be the slightest bit bored to read about what you intend to do.

Re:

[ebonlock.livejournal.com]

I think Galadriel summed it up best. And I may munge the quote:

"Even the smallest person can change the world."


And I'm reminded of Gandalf's words too: "All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us." We can decide to sit idly by and watch the world go to hell in a handbasket, or we can decide to do something about it. Maybe it won't be a big thing, but it's something. Even if it's just changing our own perspective and trying to be the best people we can.

[tersa.livejournal.com]

Yup. And I really do believe it can become the hurricane started by butterfly wings.

[mister-sunshine.livejournal.com]

Have you considered merging your art with your politics as well? Political art can be a very effective medium for getting the point across.