A downside of having a functional brain is understanding how little you know.

This is compounded by being able to see clearly every time you learn something new how much less you know than you thought. Where that leaves you, if you’re being intellectually honest, is never having solid enough footing to be able to ever shout anything into the void. If the only way to be heard in 2021 is to shout into the din with all the arrogance you can muster, right or wrong, it’s difficult to see value in that. There is value in speaking a little more slowly, a little more softly and letting it exist off to the side of the firehose for people if they need it. It’s not the way to fame, but it’s pretty late for that for me anyway.

I can only speak to the things I know, and I try very hard to be clear when I don’t know something. That will mean that this space will contain some performance theory, some popular culture, some politics and a whole bunch of sharing things I’ve found round and about the internet. I believe firmly in the idea of Talking About What’s Good and sharing what’s good in the world. There’s no need to ignore the pain and brokenness in the world, or to be livelaughlove about it all.

Neither is there a need to decide that life is sackcloth and ashes full time. You can be a good citizen of your chosen community and aim toward hope.

I have lived in 5 states that I count.

New Hampshire. California, Texas, Minnesota, and now Wisconisin. Wisconson. Wisconsin.
Muscle memory will get there, I promise.

Their state mottos are:

Live Free or Die. (The US’s Iron Islands)
Eureka. (Weak. I was going to go with Eur-WEAK-a here but I didn’t. You’re welcome.)
Friendship. (Swear on your grandpa’s belt buckle. Look it up)
L’Étoile du Nord. (Just as good or better than any other place you’ve been and we’ll fight you if you say otherwise)

For my money the most solid of these is Wisconsin’s, the only one of them that is a verb, and it has an optimism about it without being too sugary. So I’ll leave you with that for now, for our beginning of a new year.

Forward.