{"id":1894,"date":"2015-09-15T12:01:00","date_gmt":"2015-09-15T17:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/toppun.com\/blog\/?p=1894"},"modified":"2015-09-15T12:03:14","modified_gmt":"2015-09-15T17:03:14","slug":"poem-halving-no-interest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/toppun.com\/blog\/2015\/09\/15\/poem-halving-no-interest\/","title":{"rendered":"POEM: Halving No Interest"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wile a capital idea to sum<\/strong>
\nI halve no interest<\/strong>
\nIn how you make a living<\/strong>
\nRather<\/strong>
\nThat which<\/strong>
\nMakes you<\/strong>
\nCome alive<\/strong><\/p>\n

I would dare say that most of life lost is in the chasm between making a living and doing that which makes you come alive.\u00a0 I would even dare say that being distant from having to worry about basic needs — “having it made” — is a greater threat to coming alive than what life palpitates within us when we are connected to struggling for basic human needs.\u00a0 This narrative runs counter to the liberal, artsy dream of not having to worry about money so you can be free to pursue “more important things,” presumably art as luxury rather than art as necessity.<\/p>\n

The art of living is essentially doing that which makes you come alive.\u00a0 This is where art is a necessary reflection of our overflowing aliveness, or, in less flowery language, art is a basic human need.\u00a0 Art lives coequal with our basic material needs of food, shelter, health care, an environment free of violence and full of affection, and the long litany of human rights inalienable to humanity.\u00a0 Art flowers in our connection to others and creation.\u00a0 Revolutionary art serves as a critique of alienation and destruction, which often comes at the hands of money first — sometimes driving a cruel bargain for our humanity; more often offering a seductively easy price for our humanity.<\/p>\n

Personally, my art is rooted in both the privileged experience of a first world nation and the surrounding larger reality of vast material deprivation more common than not on this planet we share.\u00a0 I was literally born into this conundrum.\u00a0 As a helpless baby, I was not helpless.\u00a0 While I was born in Haiti, the poorest nation in the western hemisphere, I was not fated to live a life anything like the countless babies born within a stones throw.\u00a0 I was born to well-educated, white Americans — a doctor and a nurse.\u00a0 As a toddler, I would fly off in an airplane, already then cementing myself solidly within the experience of less than 1\/20th of the world’s inhabitants.\u00a0 My rant above is perhaps one of privileged hope.\u00a0 I may never know for sure.\u00a0 However, as I grow in my art of living, I find it much wiser and productive to root for humanity, not money.\u00a0 The truth of any above assertions is probably best demonstrated by the fact that Haiti has the largest concentration of artists, predominantly painters, of any nation on earth.\u00a0 Perhaps art is a necessity, not a luxury.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wile a capital idea to sum I halve no interest In how you make a living Rather That which Makes you Come alive I would dare say that most of life lost is in the chasm between making a living … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,42,9,15],"tags":[775,563,360,335,574,538,481,440,428,178,725,184,388,122,305,208,359,66,658,94,107,513,601,185,239,421,163],"class_list":["post-1894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-about-top-pun","category-health","category-poems","category-political-and-philosophical-musings","tag-alienation","tag-america","tag-art","tag-conundrum","tag-creation","tag-dream","tag-environment","tag-evolution","tag-experience","tag-food","tag-haiti","tag-health-care","tag-hope","tag-human-rights","tag-humanity","tag-liberal","tag-life","tag-money","tag-poems","tag-poetry","tag-poor","tag-privilege","tag-reality","tag-revolution","tag-revolutionary","tag-truth","tag-violence"],"yoast_head":"\nPOEM: Halving No Interest | About Top Pun, Health, Poems, Political and Philosophical Musings | Top Pun's Poetry, Funny Puns, Free Posters, Public Health Radio Show! 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