In wandering around the Internet, I ran across a column by Tim Bienkowski in The Buffalo News. The title is, Let’s Return to the Days of Entertaining Ourselves. Here’s part of what he wrote:
“This spring, I had the privilege of attending a poetry marathon called the Urban Epiphany, held at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Buffalo. The event featured 100 local poets invited to read for about two minutes each in a rotating feast of poetic appetizers.
I was excited to participate and toward the end of the evening I had an epiphany of my own. What if everyone had to write and share two minutes of poetry? Not just practicing poets, mind you, but everyone.
What if this event was an expected achievement for most people, like passing your driver's exam? Let's just pretend that in our age of consumerism and careerism, our society also placed equal value on creativity. Imagine the possibilities: You could learn much about a person by his choice of subjects, tone, rhythm and style. You could spot the egotistical by their 10-minute rants or humorists by their unexpected punch lines. Singles would trade poems on the Internet, the more daring offering their performance in video format.
Of course, any new trends always produce winners and losers. Winners would include the ink and paper industries, opticians and academia. Losers would include consumer technology and reality TV.
On the other hand, people would live more conscious lives, be better able to recognize their own problems and discover solutions from within. They would be less able to be manipulated by the news media, advertising and the government, and would be more likely to develop their own voice.
Many might find this whole idea a bit off the wall. But if you think about it, we have become a nation of listeners and watchers. We leave the creativity to the professionals.
Prior to the 20th century, there were very few professional entertainers. People found a way to entertain each other through storytelling, singing and writing their thoughts down for others to read.
Isn't it time we all get involved in the magical pursuit of capturing our own ideas and sharing them?
Ideas are like stars. Isn't it time to let the clouds clear?”
Amen!
