begin it...

i have been giving this "occupation" thing a second (and third & fourth adnauseum) thought. even as the movement itself seems to have come to a blustering standstill ( an uproarious victory, one might coo, for the powers of "same as it ever was"... and "let's all just keep get back to the business of polishing the damn brass of our individual state's rooms onboard this here titanic"..).. but really.. the movement, as such, has left an indelible impact on the larger conversation, and on the one that continues daily in my own mind... and the words go something like this.. what is it, then, to occupy this space? to begin to radically re-imagine a world, a society, a culture, a people, or even an individual life on a grand scale? and i begin to think.. that the truly radical work begins on this very small, cellular level. the devil's in the details and, indeed, the angel's got her fingers in the minutea. for we have been told, again & again, in so many varying tones, that we are to be defined by our jobs, our social status, the car we drive, the people & politics with which we associate ourselves, the damn clothes we wear, the shit we buy or do not buy. hell, even the "Organic Movement" has managed to do little more than turn our thoughts toward another mode of CONSUMPTION. But what is it, really, to stand, un-accessorized, stripped down, raw, messy, scrappy - unswathed in any pat answers or a cure.. but just to live, radically, simply, rooted at the very center of your life??? what is it to show up, day after day, and say something.... I've read somewhere that the most revolutionary act one can accomplish is to Finish A Sentence. So. With that in mind, that is what I herein intend to do. To show up at the page each day... To begin the painstaking process of radically, authentically inhabiting the center of my life... in all its' ordinary, nitty-gritty splendor. ... Because it is Monday ( a nasty, nosy bitch of a day if ever there was one) and because at any given moment there is so much to do - such business that calls to us... start a diet, an exercise plan, do the laundry, clean the damn house, fill out job applications, learn to knit.... and i am coming to believe that the truly powerful thing is to stand, rooted in a certain stillness.. do not pass go, do not collect one hundred dollars... and forgive me, dear reader (whoever you are...) but do not even stop to edit or revise, nor determine how good a thing may be.... Natalie Goldberg writes: writing memoir is a very stupid thing to do. ..... there are a thousand other more logical ways to spend one's time... and yet... it is exactly what i intend to do... today and tomorrow... and all the many days after that. to show up, fill the page, keep my hand in motion.. until i can feel that this little piece of psychic real estate i've been granted.. has been indeed,, properly.. thoroughly.. authentically.. messily & ravenously... Occupied. Perhaps if, collectively, we could all begin to live in such a way - writing, spinning our lives into existence from the inside out - A Movement - may once again take flight. .....