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| Not to be born in another era, but to be transported to another era to live in. Not to say there is anything wrong with the present. Just strictly speaking from my activist, political science side I think I would want to live in the 1960's. To go to school at Berkeley, I think that would be an amazing time. I know I say this on the eve of "the most historic election in US history." But honestly where does that leave us? Not to be in a cynic, but the hub-bub surrounding Obama will disappear 6 months into his term. I am almost tempted to say a majority of people will have zero to little interest in politics even before Obama's tush hits the cushy leather seat in the Oval Office. I think the 60's was just a more exciting time. Never mind the Vietnam War and Civil Rights Movement. I think it would amazing to witness and be apart of the Berkeley Free Speech Movement. Six thousand plus students banding together and standing up against the school president and adminstration just because they couldn't table on campus about political activities and clubs. They had sit-ins and rallies and demonstrations just because the school political clubs couldn't hand out pamphlets and information on campus. Pieces of paper brought together young republicans, the communists and socialists, professors, and everything in between. 100 students were arrested on the first day of protest. The Free Speech Movement lasted several months starting in the summer going into winter.
We are talking about paper, with words printed on them. These things brought together students, teachers, and the citizens of the city together to act in one voice and to fight for a basic civil right, written as the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights, that the school adminstration stole from the school. The eyes of the nation and mass media were centered on Berkeley and people were captivited because people had the heart to stand up for what they believe in. Yet, we as citizens in the present don't have the passion nor the efficacy to stop a war in Iraq that some people do not agree with. We do not have the drive nor motivation to stand up against a president that is a lame duck and losing public opinion each passing day. We don't feel the need to vocalize ourselves about the economic conditions that are harming our nation. I am just saddened that people are more passionate and livid about pieces of dead tree fibers in the 1960's than wide spread political issues that are effecting us today.
Makes me wonder why I am studying what I am studying. If the most political a majority of people are willing to be in the 21st Century is filling in some dashes and bubbles on a scantron once every four years, then what's the point? Have we as a nation lost all social consciousness that we don't care what is happening? Do we as citizens feel that the US, a democratic country an example of the democratic country in the world, isn't for us or doesn't work for us? Have we simply just lost our voice?
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| Those are the words my mentor said to me while we were waking back to 46 St. Well let me back up a bit. On this summer project, I got set up with a mentor for the duration of the project. He is really cool and has a resume that would make any writer's jaw drop. For being so young and accomplished what he has is amazing and is an honor to even pick his brains a few times during the summer. But I was out with my mentor and I showed him a poem I had written for the first of two artworks we will be creating while in New York on this arts summer project. He read it over and edited and gave me some advice about it. But then the next things he said to me after dinner caught me off guard. He looked at me and said, "There is no reason you can't be published."
People for a while have been telling me that I should get published or pursue getting published, but I always tossed it aside because I thought they were just encouraging me like friends and family do. But hearing from an expert on the subject gave me hope that maybe there is some validity to what people have encouraged me to do. Now I know I will not be in anything really notable or amazing, but just having something, anything of mine out and about somewhere in the ocean of published literature would be cool. This, hopefully, won't get to my head. If God willing, it will happen but its not something I want to be the focus of my life. I will try my best to get published but I want to be realistic also. I will not make a living with poetry, hardly anyone does. Even the best had day jobs being professors or whatnot. I will not be world renown nor famous. I will not end up in a Norton Anthology. But I am reasonably sure that poetry will be a passion of mine for the rest of my life and something I will continue to do. And so if my passion and hobby gets published in a literary magazine here and there, that would be intriguing but by no means do I want publication to be the end all and be all of my life. I will try and give publication a shot, sending out poems I am proud of out there to be judged and looked at by various editors but in the end the results will be up to God and I am perfectly fine with that. If I send out a hundred letters to lit. magazines and never get published, I pray that I will be content with that.
But besides that, I have started my second art project. Its a collaboration and I am excited. I am excited to see what comes from it. It is my first collaboration. We will see how it goes. I am excited about our idea though. It will be a panoramic picture of some sort of landscape and the picture will be separated into three sections. The first section will be in ultra-bright, unnatural colors. This will represent the wealth and riches of New York. All the extravagance that is beyond the norm and isn't a true representation of life. The middle section is natural, unaltered. This is be true life, or life as it should be and life as it in normalcy. The final section will be in grays and in dull colors. This will show the robotic side of the city. How people are drained and sapped of their humanity being caught up in this rat race. Robotic routine is the only thing some people know and so they live their lives in gray. So the middle section of the picture is supposed to be a combination of the hyper-real, bright colors of the first section and the grays of the last section. Hopefully we will be able to execute the piece as well as we imaged it to be. We will see. But tomorrow I am going to Coney Island and I am excited to ride the Cyclone. It will be my first roller coaster ride in many years.
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| And...I don't really know. I mean don't get me wrong the time here has been amazing and incredible. But I am not quite sure what to make of it all. It is kind of strange being a West coaster on the East. I mean I was born in Maryland and lived there for 10 years, but 10 years old isn't really old enough to digest the "culture" of the East in a sense. It has been interesting just hanging out and getting to know so many people, most of which have come from the East side of the Mississippi. So its very much a East coast dominated project. But its still been fun. I do have to say I tend to be a tad bit more relaxed than other people here. Not to say thats a good or bad thing, no value judgment, just an observation. I guess it is true that the West Coast is more relaxed (well at least the NW is that way).
But besides "culture shock" it has been great. Went to Coney Island yesterday. That was quite the experience. There was apparently a Mermaid Parade going on and it was pretty crowded. A lot of people dressed as mer-people and pretending to be sea creatures. From what I gathered it was a parade/demonstration to protect the sea. *shrug* all I know is that there were a lot of intriguing costumes.
But I finished the first of three art projects while on project. Tomorrow we start our second, which is a collaboration with one other person. So I am excited to start that. Hopefully I get paired with someone cool, which everyone is, but basically I just don't want to be paired with a guy. There is nothing wrong with the seven guys here, they're all cool and good people I am just sensing some gender segregation and the leaders of the project have decided the collaborative pairs and so if I get paired with a guy...I'm sorry but some assumptions are going to be made. Especially if I get paired with the only other Asian guy here. I really will have to make some assumptions then. Nothing against the leaders, it might not be intentional that there is (perceived) segregation going on...but hopefully they are wise enough to see it and correct it. But thats just me venting my frustrations. I definitely don't hold it against anyone but its just a shame that (to me at least) it feels this way.
But this is how I am feeling the first two weeks, which is a very short time I understand to make any concrete perceptions. So we will see what happens at the end of the five weeks.
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| Armor of the Enemy
God has called me to stand firm,
To stand firm against the forces of
darkness
To resist in the evil day,
To struggle against the wicked
spiritual forces.
But the battle I do not engage
I invite and embrace the enemy whom I
am to fight,
I lay in evil's arms
Wrapped by heavy sheets,
Comforted by it's false warmth.
I am darkness' bedfellow.
And when I wake I gird myself with the
belt of deception
As the fanged serpent slithers lies
into my ear,
I am consumed and coiled by the enemy's
fraud
The burden of it's treachery bears down
on me
It straggles me and I am unable to
escape.
The serpent's forked tongue poisons the
mind,
Compelling me to strap on the
breastplate of self-righteousness
It hardens the heart in a cage of
legalism,
Self-righteousness steals the soul of
compassion
And robs me of my heart of flesh.
I am restless
For I wear the boots of discontent.
My heart anxious, my mind uneasy
I find no peace nor rest,
Because I do not know the comfort of
Christ
Who is the Prince of Peace
For the tumultuous snake slinks into my
thoughts.
I equip myself with the shield of doubt
That is weak and feeble.
I waver at every attack made by the
enemy
My doubt leaves me vulnerable.
I take up the helm of squander
As I discard Christ's work on the
cross.
The manifestation of God's redeeming
power is not present in my life,
Because I throw away His salvation
For the sake of the sly serpent.
I wield the sword of flesh
Dull and ineffective,
The viper's venom saps the strength
from my strikes
And I am too crippled to fend off the
enemy.
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