Mid-March, a blog post included this quote from a character in Louise Penny’s novel A World of Curiosities: “Happiness as an act of defiance. A revolutionary act.”
It’s not a new concept, at least to me, but it seems that now and again, I need a reminder to affirm it. I think always of this quote from the song “La Vie Boheme” in Jonathan Larson’s musical, RENT: “The opposite of war isn’t peace. It’s creation.”
Two musicians I keep up with on social media both live in Nashville. One has a new song coming out tomorrow, and he posted his performance of a cheerful song (by another artist) to celebrate it today. I sent him a quick message letting him know that I’m aware things are tough in Nashville right now, and that I value his creation, like happiness, as “an act of defiance” and “a celebration of existence.”
The other musician posted a song he just wrote in reaction to the Nashville school shooting. He brought his wife and two children here from another country. They support his dream of success in the U.S., and I’ve been a fan of his since I found him on Instagram. He’s struggling with recent events. His home isn’t far from the site of the school shooting. His children’s school is even closer, I think. He’s come from a place without this kind of gun violence. I sent him a similar message to the one above, citing his particular circumstances. It’s heartbreaking to me that he’s experiencing, as a father, husband, and artist, too closely what people all over the world simply don’t get about this country and its gun culture.
I don’t get it, either. The posturing, the fighting, the name-calling, and politicizing while the slaughter of innocents continues in workplaces, churches, synagogues, mosques, grocery stores, malls, hospitals, nightclubs, theaters, and in homes. Schools? It’s estimated that about sixty-eight percent of gun-related incidents at schools were with weapons taken from the shooter’s home or from a relative or friend.* An estimated 4.6 million American children live in a home where a gun is left loaded and unlocked.* In 2022, 34 students and adults died while more than 43,000 children were exposed to gunfire at school.*
Is there any place gun violence doesn’t occur? Victims are every race, age, gender, affluent or poor, even if in disproportionate numbers, in every state, city, and town. Among all the perpetrators, there is no single defining, common characteristic except one.
Guns. They used guns.
All this overwhelms me. Makes me feel helpless. It robs me of hope and joy. When I feel this way, creative things I love to do, want to do, seem pointless. I know I’m not unique. I know we all suffer. Society suffers.
Today, I tried to write, and nothing happened, and I reminded myself that art is an act of defiance. Revolution. Resistance. Connection. Love. Faith. Reverence. Growth. Hope.
A search for more led me to a collection of quotes from others who have said what art is. Maybe there’s something on the list that resonates for you.
Tomorrow, I’ll wake up and deal with the mundane: computer issues that frustrated me tonight. Making and eating breakfast. Reminding myself to breathe. To feel gratitude for everything good in the world and in my life, including family, friends, home, dogs, nature, humor, kindness, and art.
I’ll open my manuscript and try again to make something with words that affirms or comforts or challenges or engages, as so many writers, artists, musicians–all of the arts–have provided before me and continue to provide. I’ll try to be the opposite of the violence, fear, aggression, hate, dishonesty, greed, and prejudice that are part of this gun culture.
I’ll think about this.
*Statistics taken from the Sandy Hook Promise site.
There’s nothing like a management that can’t let their engineers have a voice in the their own technical writing documents. It all makes me feel like I’m just a stupid monkey banging on a clunky ancient black metal typewriter to their dictation after I said what needed saying. Maybe I’ll just plagiarize Shakespeare instead. I hate technical writing when I can’t write the way I see the world, the way I would organize my thoughts, the way I would explain something or provide further insight when all of this is not how said other just wouldn’t do so that obviously I am always wrong and clearly wasting everybody’s time and effort for not doing it “right.”
I was once tempted to rebel and write my instructions for a test process in C++, so that only the compiler could moan and groan about me being ambiguous about my usage of the phrase “record your observations” in a test procedure. Somehow I was supposed to list out examples when anything could happen!! I did fight that back by saying observations is to data as to be is to be perceived.
Sorry you’re having a tough time in your professional life. I’ve been a tech writer, and the idea of excluding engineers from the process is the opposite of my experience.