End of the Year Pep Talk From Cloudy Funkytown

My love is in being. My love is in writing poems, and letters. My love is in how I play, create, and share. My love is in my worst dancing. My love is in my laugh. 

My love is also in my struggle to share in what I feel is a meaningful way, in ways that will reach others. What do I do with all of my poems? My ideas? Where do I begin to find a home for the project I've been working on all year? Do I continue to teach and perform as I have in the past (I know the answer to that is no), or find new ways? Well, there's love in the not-knowingness, in this cloudy funkytown where I find myself, and a burble of excitement as well. Just enough, like a weak fountain full of pennies and dimes in the center of the roundabout.

An inspiration for me is the work of Corita Kent. I keep her Ten Rules for Students and Teachers pinned to a corkboard above my desk. It is brilliant, as was Corita. She was a force of love and artistic talent, and she shared her gifts as a teacher, social justice advocate, artist, and as a sister in the Immaculate Heart of Mary. I recommend her and Jan Seward's book, Learning by Heart: Teachings to Free the Creative Spirit. Each day when I look at the rules, one sings to me more than another. Today, Rules 4, 6, 9 and 10 are in harmony.

Corita Kent: Ten Rules for Students and Teachers

RULE ONE: Find a place you trust, and then try trusting it for awhile.

RULE TWO: General duties of a student: pull everything out of your teacher; pull everything out of your fellow students.

RULE THREE: General duties of a teacher: pull everything out of your students.

RULE FOUR: Consider everything an experiment.

RULE FIVE: Be self-disciplined: this means finding someone wise or smart and choosing to follow them. To be disciplined is to follow in a good way. To be self-disciplined is to follow in a better way.

RULE SIX: Nothing is a mistake. There’s no win and no fail, there’s only make.

RULE SEVEN: The only rule is work. If you work it will lead to something. It’s the people who do all of the work all of the time who eventually catch on to things.

RULE EIGHT: Don't try to create and analyze at the same time. They’re different processes.

RULE NINE: Be happy whenever you can manage it. Enjoy yourself. It’s lighter than you think.

RULE TEN: We’re breaking all the rules. Even our own rules. And how do we do that? By leaving plenty of room for X quantities.

HINTS: Always be around. Come or go to everything. Always go to classes. Read anything you can get your hands on. Look at movies carefully, often. Save everything—it might come in handy later.