A Moment

"It is the artist who reads the times. I look forward to seeing your interpretation of it."

My play analysis professor, perhaps my favorite professor at Penn State, stood in front of the class this morning. She suggested that we reflect. She suggested that we act. She suggested that we get out there and show the world itself. At a time when the unthinkable becomes reality, when a place of higher learning becomes a grave, when our illusion of safety is disturbed - we need to realize that life is but a moment and that as artists, as individuals, we cannot wait until tomorrow to stand up and change the world. Perhaps tomorrow will never come.

Middle class America. Comfortable. Safe. Blind. People are starving somewhere ELSE. People are dying somewhere ELSE. I need my caramel frappacino, COACH bag and razer phone. I need that golf club membership, a Dodge charger and a beautiful girlfriend. Violence only happens in the inner city or in the Middle East or uneducated parts of the world. I don't know anyone in the army, in the projects, in Sudan ... so why should I care. I'll never be raped/robbed/gunned down. I'll never get AIDS - that'll never be me.

I think that way. So do you. As much as I hate to admit it, I'm self-interested. I often think that I have all the time in the world. I tend to place myself above others. That'll never happen to me, no never. On occasion I actually look at those photos on my bedroom wall. Photos of starving children and women in brothels. Photos I hung to remind me that my life is truly not my own - at least I don't want it to be. On occasion I remember that tomorrow is promised to no one. It's a sobering thought. Here today and gone tomorrow. On occasion I remember that that I'm truly blessed to be born in middle class America. That I'm blessed to be in college and have a loving family. But those occasions are too infrequent. I'm sure they are for you too.

I don't suggest paranoia as much as I don't suggest being blind. I do suggest living though. Helping others. Thankfulness. Getting out of your comfort zone. Perhaps if someone had reached out to the Virginia Tech shooter, he wouldn't have snapped. And even if someone did, well at least he/she tired. That's more than I can say for most of us - including myself.

Wake up. Create. Be. Stop living in the illusion of safety and endless tomorrows. I look forward to seeing your life interpretation.