I am a doorman for the kitty
I open doors and close them down
She shows me that her dish is empty

And scolds me with her kitty frown

I hear her mewling thru the screendoor
She won’t just nose her fat butt thru
I have to be there to escort her
Like i’m her maid and butler too

Her muddy paws mark all my papers
Her wicked claws shred the divan
She piddly pees outside the catbox
World domination is her plan

sung to the tune of Witchata Lineman

A poem start...

Woke early, tired of it all

tired of the racism

tired of the patriarchy

tired of the inequity entwined in our culture

want to tear it down

burn it up

destroy the system that degrades diversity and difference

 

but i am in it,

one of them,

one of those who authorities expect to uphold the rules and regs of a system of oppression

one who gets paid to pretend that we are fair, we are honest, we are trustworthy

one who takes the little ones and trains them how to survive in  a world that denies their uniqueness, their colorfulness, their beautiful and bountiful honesty

One who is more woke each day

to the day to day inequities that damage and destroy

One who is struggling to determine how to stop the fighting, the fawning, the fleeing, the freezing

and be free

 

Free to flip the switch, to turn the tide,

to fire the bright light of equity

onto the authority itself

To show the patriarch a better way

To use the heat of passions fire to burn away

the rules and regs that stop the play

 

 

End of Hiatus? or End of the World?

I'm pretty good at endings. So, far I've made it through the End of Camelot 1963, the end of the Summer of Love 1968, the End of Nixon 1974, the end of the ColdWar 1989, the end of the modern world in Y2K in 1999, the end of American security 9/11/2001, the end of the Mayan calendar 2012, and now the end of the world as we know it with CoronaVille 2020.  

And now, apparently, I'm ending an 8 year hiatus from this blog. Eight years. Wow. Time flies when you are working and playing and having fun. Oh, that sounds like a good song to the tune of a childrens church song (learned while we were "doing church" as Jesus Freaks in 1972-1974--end of the church era). If you know the tune sing along...

"Working and playing and having fun,Working and playing and having fun, In the name of Jebus bites, we're playing and having fun."

Please pardon the song parody interruption, but since CoronaVille fell upon us, I've been making sure to sing every song that pops into my head as a "living life fully until I die" strategy. (Makes work meetings very interesting...but that's whole 'nother story).

Speaking of Coronaville, this is what brings me out of blog-retirement. For 163 days, we (and by we I mean the whole modern world) have been in lock-down, semi-quarantine, virus-fearing, mask-wearing, death-facing insanity. Life as we know it has been turned upside down and inside out. 

So what does a writer do during the end of the world? Well, write of course...stream their consciousness onto the page for all of the world to see, write themselves a digital legacy (which will disappear completely if an EMP strike comes, but that too is another story).

So here I am to get back to sharing my world with you until my world truly ends (or i get busy and forget to write the blog). My hope is that I will be able to share with you the end of racism, sexism, capitalism, and white supremacy--oh, and for sure the end of Qanon (or as my partner-in-crime says "low IQanon") and Trumpty-dumpty's rein of terror.

So for now, a new beginning--a new choice to blog along as we build a better world for all.  Oh yes, and a cult, definately time to start a doomsday cult. Or maybe a Zoom'sDay cult. Which brings up another song from childhood, sing along if you know it.

"We're gonna Zoom-ah, Zoom-ah, Zoom/We're gonna Zoom-ah, Zoom-ah, Zoom"

Field Report: Creative Revolution Year 11

December 25th, 2012

Sitting on Muse Mountain preparing for another creative mission into so called Civilization. Not sure how they manage to think they are civilized when the whole of their culture exists in a technological version of reality which perpetually manufactures wants into fear-driven "needs".  A part of me just wants to stay up here in the heavenly wilderness we've created, but the true need to help others drives me down the mountain. And so I tie myself to the creative wheel and roll on down. Cya soon.

Co-creating my friends' gay wedding.

Yesterday, me and my friends created a little history--okay HERstory as we celebrated their love and their hard-fought for right to get married. These are the words we wove together to celebrate their marriage:

Marriage Ceremony of Sam & Kelly

(12-9-2012 @ 1 pm@ Torque Coffee in Vancouver, Washington)

Friends, family and community, if you would take your seats, make sure your cell phones are turned off and take a minute to really sink into this moment. 

Be here and nowhere else--this is the only moment that matters, this present, this, right now. 

Please allow yourself to feel deeply the love that is here today with us. If you want to laugh, please laugh out loud, if you feel the need to cry let the tears come, and if you want to applaud please do so with spirit. 

Feel free to do what ever you need today to break the old rules of weddings. For we are breaking tradition here today. And we are, together, creating the wedding of Kelly and Sam.

Processional--Levi Warren plays and sings 

Kelly is escorted by her brother Kevin,

Sam by her mother, Jan.

"Love is a radical act. Taking the time to actually love someone, to truly value who they are rather than force them to be someone else, is a radical act. To value acts of love more than things is a radical act. It goes against what we are taught by society."(Sam on the Love is a Radical Act blog)

Love is a radical act...true and real love shakes us to our very roots and changes our lives and our world in miraculous and incredible ways. 

Today we come together to celebrate such a true, real and radical  love, as we share in the wedding celebration of Kelly and Sam.  A wedding that, in the old, traditional world of just last month could not have happened because it was unlawful. 

But now,  thanks to Kelly and Sam and thousands of other people-- gay, straight, black, white, married, single--who fought for marriage equality in the courts, in the streets, and at the ballot box,  gay people can now embrace all the protections, promises and problems that we straight people have always taken for granted.  I'm excited to live in a time when marriage equality has become the law in our fine state. And as Washington goes...soon so goes the world! 

Kelly and Sam are you ready to get married? (YES!)

Please join hands as Jenney reads her poem that your love inspired. 

Jenney reads.

Please join both hands and face each other:

Kelly, do you promise Sam to be her wife and partner in all senses of the word? To be loving, kind, dependable, supportive, fun,  understanding and unconditionally accepting of who she really is? 

(Kelly: i do)

Sam, do you promise Kelly  to be her wife and  partner in all senses of the word? To be loving, kind, dependable, supportive, fun, understanding and unconditionally accepting of who she really is? 

(Sam: i do)

By your words it is made real. Through your pledge of marriage today, you make these promises, willing that they are just and true and lifelong. 

Here are the rings that  are an outward symbol of your inner commitment to each other. We choose rings because they symbolize a complete circle, never ending, just as your love will never end. Your rings were specially created of the platinum given to you by Jan, Sam's mother. The red line that encircles them is a reminder of the love that entwines your hearts.

Kelly put this ring on Sam's finger and repeat after me. 

"I Kelly, take you, Sam, to be my wife."

Sam put this ring on Kelly's finger and repeat after me. 

"I Sam take you Kelly to be my wife."

Now that you have complicated your union with government, we have some paperwork.  Let's sign that marriage license. (musical interlude by Levi while we sign)

Creating a loving marriage is a choice we make in every moment, of each and every day, to open our hearts more fully to love. 

To connect to our partner with body, mind, heart and soul. 

To realize that our differences make us stronger and more flexible to weather life's storms and celebrate life’s gifts. 

To choose to dig down deep to find the tiny sprouts and sparks of creation, to concieve together the supports we need to grow. 

Marriage is facing the critic across the breakfast table, and reminding yourself that the challenges between you are creating a deeper commitment. 

Creating a marriage is a fine piece of art which can only be made real if you both get your hands. 

Marriage is a shared bond with a greater community of souls. 

It is continuing to open our hearts, which expands everyone's capacity to grow. 

Marriage is the completion of the circle of love, that leads you forward, again and again, to recreate your selves and the universe, every day, in every moment. 

Marriage is a radical act that moves us and shakes us until our egos lie shattered in pieces and our hearts are free to soar together.

Your marriage is your greatest work of art and it requires the courage of a warrior, the curiosity of a child, the compassion of a saint, and the gratitude of a beggar. 

By your exchange of promises today, the giving and receiving of rings, and them governmental papers, you have become wives for life. 

With the power given me by the creative spirit.  I do proclaim you lawfully married. 

You may now kiss your wife.

Friends, family and community I present to you the happy couple--Kelly and Sam.

A B C's of the Creative Circle

The Creative Solution—

A B C’s of the Creative Circle

A Primer in the Art and Science of Creativity

By Colleen Lindsay, Muse

Approach

Presence—tuning in to the current moment (mind)

Lighten up and Laugh—replacing low energy emotions (hatred, anger) with higher level emotions (love, acceptance) lightens our daily moments  and creates ease in the process (emotion)

Activate—only through action can we implement our dreams into physical reality (body)

Yes, yes, yodel!—gratitude and acceptance furthers our development and allows the natural creative process to move us forward. (source/spirit)

Beliefs

Creativity is the determinant characteristic of humanity, and therefore the ultimate solution to all human problems.

Creativity can be cultivated as a set of life skills through an understanding of a nature-based creative circle process.

Creativity is intellectually, environmentally, emotionally and ecologically balanced through the processes and practices of the four primary modes of experience--mind, body, emotion and spirit.

Creativity moves in phases or stages which fully integrate with the rhythms of our planet.

By fully embracing, and continually exploring the creative circle process anyone can become more creative in every moment, creating the life they were born to live.

Circle Cycles/Stages

One—Choice—every creative process begins with a step forward in faith, trusting the universal source (God as we understand him/her) for all our solutions

Two—Connection—creativity builds on full connection with your self, your subject and the universal source

Three—Conception—full connection results in the generation of numerous ideas, we need only open to the flow of ideas and contain them on paper through images and words 

Four—Challenge—critical analysis of each idea yields the perfect solution to our problem

Five—Commitment—the perfect solution is supported by our investment of time, energy and resources and those provided by the universal source.

Six—Creation—the plan is made, steps aligned and we begin to implement our solution in the physical world

Seven—Communion—we engage our inner and outer communities to fully form our creation.

Eight—Completion—our fully formed creation is released back to the universal source from which it has come through a resolution process which allows our energy to renew itself for the next creation's circle.

Keep your drama on the page or the stage.

Supreme moment today was when one of my six grade students came up to me and said "I have something for you!"

She unfolded a post-it note with a drawing of me with the caption--Ms Lindsay--Drama Queen. "'Cause you like drama so much.  Look, it's you with your braids." (I have a trademark multi-braid hairstyle that I wore yesterday.)

Ahhhh...they like me, they really, really like me.

Just wrapped my second five-week, after school drama class for middle schoolers. Wow! What fun!
The secret, it seems,  is to teach them to channel their hormonal insanity into dramatic and emotional characters, or as I like to say "Keep your drama on the page or the stage."

Middle schoolers are the biggest divas in the world (both the boys and the girls). They got so much "I" in them, their narcissism is so thick. But, that's what they gotta have right? The whole idea of their age is to begin to separate THEIR self from those other selves around them.  A strong "I" is required to do such a thing.

Grown ups need to understand this better.  One of the parents who came to our performance today, a Russian immigrant with a very strong accent, started talking to me about how his daughter wants to be an actress. (She's pretty good. She just might do it--if she can lose her beautiful accent.)

He thanked me for working with her and said "I tell Marianna last night that your job is so much more important. You're the producer. You make things happen." He held up his hand demonstrating a puppeteer.

I tried not to laugh, I guess this is one place where my puppet-master tendencies are well placed. But, I wanted to tell him that telling his daughter what she "should" do at this age is an exercise in futility. You gotta find some way to get their friends to tell them they should do it.

For example, today some kids were assigned to play drama with me in reading class. Two boys immediately went into resister mode. One of them, Joe, went ballistic and started saying "It's not fair. This is stupid."

When I calmly asked him what was stupid, he said "This! I hate doing this. I hate reader's theater. It's stupid." Of course that's his usual response to anything, the poor kid is a motherless, homeless couch surfer (couch-surfing sounds like it might be fun--big waves, no responsibilities, no parents--but for a little fifth grader--it sucks!)

I said, "Why don't you go and take a little time out and well talk later."

So, once i got my other kids settled, I went back to talk to him, "Hey, I'm not going to make you do this. If you don't want to do the plays, you can pick your own book and read that."

"I'm just gonna sit here."
 I said, "Okay." And walked away to my other students.

Then, I gave the play to the other resister and said, "Hey, try reading this. You might like it. I picked this one because the characters would be great for Joe. 'Cause that character jumps and spins and makes cool noises just like Joe."

The resister started reading it. "Can we do this one?"
I said, "Yeah, but I'll have to pull one of the kids from the other groups, since Joe doesn't want to do it."
"Can I see if Joe wants to?"
"Sure. Hey Joe, Bob wants to talk to you."
Sure enough, Joe signed onto the script. And he's gonna rock at it. Just because his friend wanted him too."

And that, my friends, is today's report from middle school drama land.