So, here
is the long awaited new post.
Sorry. I started back at work two
weeks ago and have been attempting (unsuccessfully) to find a balance between
writing and working.
I also
need to get into the habit of actually writing down my inspirations as they
come to me because every time I sit down to write a new plunder, I am stumped
about what has been inspiring me for the week even though I know there were a
bunch.
This
week I’m continuing my exploration of quotes.
Here is Part 2.
I’ll
lead off with a quote from Alice Walker which is an undercurrent in my
motivation for Eve of Destruction,
which used to be called In the Name of
the Children.
“The most important question in the world is, ‘Why
is the child crying?’” Alice Walker
Such a
simple idea but it penetrates to the core.
“Why is the child crying?” It
should be the question that we look at in every moment of our lives. I suppose it is also the thread that runs
through My Mother’s Daughters. Children are so innocent. Their feelings are determined by basic needs,
not by ulterior motives, so if a child is crying, then one of their needs are
not being met. Whether it be food,
shelter, love or safety; a crying child symbolizes something wrong with the environment
that they are in. Eve of Destruction (EoD) examines how hate and fear are propagated
through generations and instilled in children from the time they are born. One scene has a child crying and running from
a soldier sent to rescue her because the soldier is wearing the same uniform as
the men who led her family away, never to return. She learned to fear men dressed like
that. We need to look at what our
children (not only ones that we’ve birthed, but all the children of the world)
are seeing. What messages are we sending
them? As a global community, we are all
responsible for the children of this world because they will grow up to make
the decisions that influence our lives and we better be prepared to like the
generation we’ve created.
Which
brings me to:
“I am afraid we must make the world honest
before we can honestly say to our children that honesty is the best policy.” Sir Walter Besant
What are
we teaching our children? What do they
see and what do they learn from our example?
Like most other animals, children become what they learn from those who
raise them (again, I’m not only speaking directly to parents, but everyone who
comes in contact with a child; so everyone).
We cannot expect our children to be better than we are; where will they
learn how? If we are constantly striving
to be better ourselves, then they may learn it, but not before. There is the quote that is often attributed
to Ghandi “be the change you want to see in the world”. There will never be any other way to make it
happen. This is highlighted through the
media in EoD. The selective or misrepresented information
that is constantly bombarding our senses through the various media outlets
shapes our opinions and ideas and it is only when we can separate ourselves and
look at the information from a critical perspective that we can find and demand
the truth from it. And when it comes to
our children, we must be the siphons through which information is disseminated. We need to filter what messages they are
receiving and be diligent about how it is presented to them.
The next
quote ties into EoD but echoes the
theme in my short play Factory. This play has been sitting in a file on my
computer for years in need of a little tender love, but the core structure and
plot is there. It is about a group of
workers that go on strike due to poor working conditions and the factory owner
who refuses to meet their demands, saying that he can wait longer than they can
and eventually the strength of the union will falter and the people will come
back to work for lower pay and longer hours when the going gets tough. In the end (spoiler alert), only one man remains and eventually dies outside
the factory because he is unwilling to comprise his belief that the way they
were be treated was unjust. So, it
should come as no surprise that one of my favourite playwrights has the following
quote:
“The strongest man in the world is he who
stands alone.” Henrik Ibsen
It is
easy to stand with everyone else and protest, but it takes much more strength
and courage to continue to stand when everyone else has abandoned the cause. We see it all the time. When the pressure is too high, people
fold. I am no exception. It is hard to be the only one fighting for
something. Not only due to the lack of
support, but because you start to doubt yourself and the value of the fight or
if you are even correct in your beliefs if no one else is willing to stand with
you. It is something that I constantly
wrestle with and as I get deeper into my writing, it is a thought that creeps
up more and more. How do I deal with
controversy? What happens if people get
really angry with my opinions? Do I have
the strength to stand by my convictions, even if they are not popular? I would like to say yes, but you can never
know the answer until you are tested.
When
these feelings creep up, I look to the quote by Elizabeth Cady Stanton:
”The moment we begin to fear the opinions of
others and hesitate to tell the truth that is in us, and from motives of policy
are silent when we should speak, the divine floods of light and life no longer
flow into our souls.”
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Like The
Man in Factory, there is constantly
an internal struggle within each of us between what we believe and our longing
to fit into the tribe. But Stanton’s
quote is true: when we falter from the truth within our souls, we betray the
deepest part of ourselves; and if we can’t live with ourselves, then what is
the point of living in the first place.
This is the truth that The Man reflects.
He would rather starve and die outside the Factory than betray his own
belief and bend to the wills of policy.
His wife and children come to plead with him to go back to work like the
other men, but he says that he can’t because if he did, he would no longer be a
man but an animal bent to serve its masters.
I remember hearing a news story recently about a politician who voted
against the teachers’ union in the recent disputes, she was quoted as saying
that she personally did not agree with the decision but needed to vote that way
for the benefit of her party and the security of her job. I got into an argument with a friend who
supported her daring at speaking to the media about disagreeing with the decision
even though she voted to support it. I
called it cowardice. My friend pointed
out that she would have lost her job if she had voted against it and at least
she was speaking out to the world that the decision was wrong. My argument was that she was in a position to
make a stand against the vote and decided not to and then to save face talked
about how she didn’t like doing it.
Where is the honour in that? I
can’t say what I would have done in her position but I would hope that I could
have made a stand if I felt the decision was wrong; or if not, had the courage
to not fold to the nearest camera to protect my own reputation.
“It is not only for what we do that we are held
responsible, but also for what we do not do.” Molière
Like
that politician, she cannot be lauded for disagreeing with the decision because
she had the opportunity to act and did not.
She may have had very sound and personal reasons for what she did, but
she made a choice to behave in a way that was to her benefit and not for the
greater good. That is cowardice in
politics. It is not representing what is
best for the people she was elected to represent. She should not have her job. For me, it is through my writing that I try
to make a stand. To bring light to things
that hide in the dark. We all have to
ask ourselves: what is the price of our silence? Do we take a stand for the things in which we
believe or are we content to hide among the masses? It can be lonely to be the only one standing
for something, but I have found that it does not take long to find others who
will stand alongside. Sometimes the most
courageous thing is to be the first to speak.
Tonight,
I had the first read of our upcoming production of Empty Boxes. As a writer,
this is a terrifying time. You have no
clue whether what you wrote will covey the messages you intended or if anyone
else can relate to the experiences about which you have written. Doubt plagues your every thought and you want
to scream and run the other way, yelling “I’ve made a mistake, let’s not do
this!” Tonight was inspiring. We read the play and then everyone sat around
sharing stories of the times they experienced the situations of the characters
in the play. Someone needs to start the
conversation before others can join. It’s
the starting out that is the scary part.
If listen to your true self, to the part of you that connects with your
fellow man, you will find the scary decisions are rarely the wrong ones.
Books
referenced in this post (look for them at your local bookstore):
1001 Smartedt Things Ever Said edited by Steven D. Price
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