February is nearly over and I have yet to post a new blog… and I’m not entirely sure how I feel about that. Invitation2Artivism.com recently celebrated its ONE YEAR anniversary, and I’ve marked the occasion with a lot of questioning and reassessing my commitment to this site, its value, and my priorities.
I LIKE that Invitation2Artivism has enabled me to reach out to others, including fellow activists (from CODE PINK to the Occupy movement and beyond), with information and a perspective about current events that is somewhere between uncommon and eccentric, I suppose. I’ve tried — not always successfully — to be factual, clear, reasonable, and honest in this blog, without making a fool of myself (despite the fact that my honest feelings about the state of the world are mostly angry and despairing ones).
I QUESTION whether this site hasn’t been too much about blogging (and creating ridiculously elaborate political cartoons — some of which require a legend to decipher) and not enough about furthering my creative projects… which I hope will soon become OUR creative projects. (In short, I remain interested in collaborators, and I feel I have not done enough to communicate that interest — I badly need to update my “Projects” page, for one thing). I also wonder, after the past few months of participating in various OWS gatherings, how to strike the perfect balance between educating myself (and trying to share the benefits of that education) from my home, versus marching, rallying, and speaking out in person, with those in my community. Both, I feel, have value.
Whatever the future of this site, I should be clear that I have no intention of abandoning it… and I will continue to evaluate how it needs to grow (original video clips ARE in the works). I’ll also take advantage of this opportunity to THANK YOU, reader, for visiting Invitation2Artivism and helping me grow as a writer, artist, and activist. Some truly wonderful people have contacted me through this site, including some impressive artists, activists, and a marvelous poet (hi, Gianna!). I regret that I have often been slow to respond (I’m probably “too busy,” as I imagine myself to be, writing a vitally edifying and urgently needed play about “Zombie Nixon” or somesuch nonsense — forgive me, the self-amused nerd in me will never die, and these ditties keep me going).
Finally, since I’m already sharing a bit more on the personal side than I normally do here, let me encapsulate my February for you… I started the month working unhurriedly on a couple of ambitious blog entries (as yet unfinished, as I’ve been devoting more time to creative writing, placating my nagging muse… and feeding Zombie Nixon). Come mid-month, I found myself in Sacramento, sharing Valentine’s Day with my wife and visiting Occupy Sacramento. On the holiday, OS conducted an afternoon of teach-ins, culminating in discussions and presentations prescribed by Eve Ensler’s “V-Day,” to raise awareness of, and help reduce, sexual violence. The day was meaningful for me and the event powerful (kudos to the organizers, especially Kim). The trip was, overall, fantastic, especially the wonderful hours I spent with my wife. After leaving Sacramento, I came home to learn of personal troubles in my family, including serious concerns about some young people I love very much (“normal” life stuff, I suppose, however disruptive).
I’m just recently coming back down to Earth from all of the unusual rigmarole, reverting to my routines: newsing, reading WAR And PEACE with a group of friends, doodling, trying to be a decent husband/son/brother/uncle/friend, and endeavoring to contribute something meaningful to my community, local and global.
I look forward to continuing our conversation and CREATING SOME ART!!!
James
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I’ll close with a bit of free verse (that’s right, no charge) concocted from a comment I penned a week or two ago somewhere on the World Wide Web:
