"I am neither the only one, nor the first, nor the most important one"
in the enormous, sparkling web of connections ~ what a relief
“Has It Stopped Raining?” Laurits Andersen Ring, 1854-1933, Denmark. Public Domain.
It is I Who Must Begin
by Vaclav Havel
It is I who must begin.
Once I begin, once I try –
here and now,
right where I am,
not excusing myself
by saying things
would be easier elsewhere,
without grand speeches and
ostentatious gestures,
but all the more persistently
–to live in harmony
with the “voice of Being,” as I
understand it within myself
–as soon as I begin that,
I suddenly discover,
to my surprise, that
I am neither the only one,
nor the first,
nor the most important one
to have set out upon that road.
Whether all is really lost
or not depends entirely on
whether or not I am lost.
by Vaclav Havel, published in Teaching With Fire: Poetry that Sustains the Courage to Teach, ed. Megan Scribner and Sam Itrator, Jossey-Bass, 2003.
Creative Invitation
Quiet, center, breathe.
Draw or write a picture of the food, the resources that you need for this journey.
Draw or write a picture of the food, the resources that you already have.Consider when you have resisted and defeated an injustice. Where does this drive arise from inside you?
Vaclav Havel was the first democratically elected president of Czechoslovakia, and then the first president of the new Czech Republic. He wrote this poem during the activist protests and uprisings that toppled communist rule in Czechoslovakia in 1989.
When people are faced with repression, knowledge gets packed into poems and songs, passed from hand to hand, compresses into the space of a palm, a folded page, a hidden pocket. What is one poem, song, movie or piece of art that gives you strength?
Share in comments, if you please.
xo,
Abriel