spoken lincoln

i read a poem i wrote today sitting at the cafe | August23 2018

stillfromrhrslvideobyme — cole henry jones and ella hackworth during rehearsal for garlando’s “time in” (2017). image by phone while viewing rehearsal footage and reflection. video by ng.

i spoke with a few elder for a while after i ate and sat and met people. they reminded me of the lesson and went on that when they were coming up, before making a step into the future, they had to see the “entire staircase, the floor, the carpet, the doorway, the whole thing”. they had to make choices with life-long sight. and nowadays, my (and younger) generations don’t have sight on all of that life. all that time stretched out far as we can see. the choices we make are more impulsive and unpredictable. we might choose to up and go to a forest in mexico to write a play, as a daughter of one of these gentlemen will do. they said they admired the chance nature of these generations. and at the same time they worry we “don’t fear anything”.