May ~ Manifestos: Define how you want to be in the world

When I was a child one of my aunts gave me a copy of Teen Creed. The line which stood out the most at the time was "stand for something, or you’ll fall for anything.” Of course, at that time in my life my parents were pretty much deciding everything for me anyway, but the older I got the more sense it made.

The first “manifesto” I came to on my own, which is typical for my generation, was Desiderata. I didn’t know that “desiderata” is Latin for “desired things”. I thought of it as a sacred text, since rumour said it’d been found in Old Saint Paul’s Church in Baltimore in 1692 (it wasn’t, it was written in 1927). I found a copy folded in the pages of a book at a yard sale.

The language seemed sacred enough and the sentiments were exactly right for the stage of life I was going through ~ early teenage rebellion ~ which had me bucking my parents’ restrictive religion.

Now I know this kind of individuation is perfectly normal for teenagers. The desire to know yourself deeply (and to think you know yourself better than anyone) and wanting to work towards the world you want to live in is very much part of growing up and becoming an adult.

I carried Desiderata with me for a long time. It hung on my wall as a reminder of what I wanted in the world. But when I started journaling regularly, just after I turned 20, it seemed more meaningful for me to consider what I knew, and not take anyone else’s word on was important for my life and how to live it.

Although much of my early journaling was about HOW I wanted to live, it wasn’t really organized enough to be called a manifesto.

Since then I’ve taken part in several group projects where each artist wrote their own manifesto and then we shared them with each other. It’s an interesting experience to sit down and think deeply about what you REALLY believe, how you REALLY want to live in the world, what REALLY matters. It’s also interesting to see what others consider essential and see how much your optimal world views do or don’t overlap.

Given recent political events, I think it’s useful to have your own manifesto as a bright light leading you forward.

Imagine the best possible you, the best possible world, document it, however utopian and unrealistic it might be, and check in from time to time to re-align yourself by reading it if need be.

For years I’ve been drawn to this very brief ideal: “Work like you are living in the early days of a better nation.”

I heard it in a folk song when I was young enough to take it to heart, and old enough to know what it meant. When I find outside events overwhelming me, I use it to remind myself that I have a role to play, however small, in making the world a better place. We could do worse than to have something grand and meaningful to aim for.

As I mentioned in class, it occurred to me that tattoos could be modern equivalent to manifestos. Although some are chosen merely for their beauty, I think anyone who goes through the process of choosing or designing a tattoo and committing to it for the long-term, is truly making a public declaration of what's important to them. Interesting, hm?

Here's how you can start thinking about your own manifesto: 

• Think deeply on what matters most to you
• It may help to step outside yourself and write TO yourself
• Think about what advice you might hear from a wise elder with LOTS of life experience, but who speaks firmly, directly and clearly, but also with compassion
• Write the best darn set of “Rules for Life” you can imagine, using brief words and statements
• Ask people you love to give their best advice about life

What I want for you in this class: Write your own instructions for how you want to be in the world.

More on writing your own manifesto in the next post!