Tell Your Stories

 

Featured image: Our Stories

Lately, I have been thinking about how important it is to tell our own personal stories. After all, they are our history.

Many times—often, for that matter—we feel shut down. We feel shut down for various reasons, often very petty reasons. For example, recently I was told I couldn't do a particular something because, listen to this, "we haven't done it before."

Really!

Now, if I was breaking a major rule or something, I would consider it worthy of discussion, but I wasn't. I was merely telling the story behind one of my works of art. I was told I couldn't tell the story because it hadn't been done before. That only made sense to me if it would harm others in the process, which it wouldn't. The other reason was that others weren't allowed to do it. I couldn't understand that reasoning, but at the same time, I said to myself, if others wanted to do it, then let them see my example and ask if they could also do it.

I also thought to myself—why shouldn't we be able to tell our stories?

I sincerely believe that no matter what story we are sharing, we should always be able to share our stories in a courteous manner. To tell our stories, be they visual, like art, or textual, like a book, an essay, a speech, or whatever—isn't this what this country is all about?

I am concerned that some rules exist just to make others feel more powerful, and that perhaps this was one of them, one of those times.

Anyway, this new work shares this concern. Please always share your stories. Tell your stories.