Transcript

Born A Bridge | Jason Graham | TEDxAirlie

I want to start like this if you're feeling slighted or divided hardly visible note to us you matter to us to us you matter and your presence indispensable our souls are still united there are times we offer misery separate adversarial punitive and minimal calamitous and agitated out of seeming pitiful but space and time we share I dare to say is mainly liminal like this too shall pass obstacles and stepping stones let yourself laugh everybody's getting home my mind is not a refuge it makes a poor master I am NOT my thoughts or the things I think I'm after I'm rooted in before the concept of an after I know the truth is here and now now tell me what's the matter for the uncommon introverts make some noise where my introvert set the folks who are a little awkward uncomfortable who are constantly found themselves being pulled between two spots I was born a bridge I would like to suggest you were born a bridge I would like to suggest that we've been talking in a binary narrative as we talked about it now in a way that doesn't really work for us I come from left right and black/white and theists and atheists and this side and that side and I found myself here and I've also found myself over here and it hasn't allowed me to choose just one over the other I've always been both you've been both more often in the knot in your life there have been times where you didn't quite fit you didn't know how to say that you weren't just one thing because you're not you're made of multitudes we are that spectrum and talking about a bridge we talk about what we know we traverse the unknown and then we land on the known again this position right here is tenuous and it's uncomfortable and it's disquieting you know like the covered bridges we have covered bridges so the horses didn't freak out when we would go over them because it's an insane thing to be crossing that chasm why are we going over the white water don't look don't look you're like flight frozen in architecture you're like a leap of faith rendered in the physical each step of the way boom boom boom boom when you're like this in this uncomfortable position you oftentimes want to reach out it's sort of ironic I found myself find myself on stages a lot and I'm trying to always get back in with the group and then to do so I separate myself out from it when you stand like this you make that variable X with your body you make that unknown you're constantly trying to reach out we do this in our infancy we're always working on being vulnerable it's part of our own biology like babies are moving in a sort of flight they have to fall to walk the mindset of a child is very open to the realities of how dangerous being this vulnerable can be liking to jump around for a sec doing performances you'll like see somebody on stage and they'll come out like yeah and it's as if they're and they know they're naked they just cover up everything that you would possibly ever want like a but they come with a kind of bravado and a kind of swag they're like I'm number one I'm the best your mom can't cook and such and such and they stand right here and this is where we see a battle posture they are stretched to a certain degree but they're closed up this is that shield and that sword right this is that left right this is a fighting stance supposed to like I don't know I'm not sure in the land of milk and honey uncertainty is my bread and butter as an artist I'm very much like a child not knowing exactly what's going to happen next so here's the baby okay so this is like this is all of us and then they do that walk and their arms are open like a birds they can't be sitting there thinking about it they're open like and they fall and they catch themselves and that's how we move and at some point they hit something the mind of a baby accepts the fact that it can be punishing sometimes to be this vulnerable they also understand the strength within that but the mind of the child is different than our minds now if we had that mind in that body the mind that we have right now into that child's body it would be like you knock your head and then you'd be like oh wait you trash you still live with your parents and you can't feed yourself and you're in a diaper I mean it's so punishing for those of us who have never found it easy to just be in one spot it can be punishing to be stretched out like this I'd like to invite for everybody here today to kick it off I got something I want to read for you with you you don't have to like everything that's said today you have to connect with it you have to find a way to connect with it it's like family we're family and you don't have to like family all the time but you do have to love them we have to make space for each other so here's this piece that I got for you for us all right transparency carries our camouflage narrative heritage ages of old foretold in the telling the melting the melding the blending the bending behold what do we gain if adding divisions our greatest achievement to date the fire next time says Baldwin to billions ignoring the flood water fate we only tell the stories we have yet to fully understand we will only stop telling them when we do how often do we say I love you how often do we say I love you how often do we understand what that means maybe if we keep saying it maybe if we keep saying that there is no guarantee any of this won't work there's no guarantee you are not crazy so let's assume everyone in this room is a Z that is seeking to go beyond what the mine can hold kind of crazy that insanity that says today I'm going to stand even if my legs do not work I am going to rise I will stretch out to the unknown I will be open to outcomes that may indeed be greater than what I thought I could conceive regardless of the fear I may feel I believe I will face forward as I go and if you are in this room then you know there is only forwards knowing that we cannot go backwards because backwards is only forwards without looking where you are going and we have been down that road before and if you are in this room let's assume you have forgotten something and you were looking to be reminded to cross from the unknown to the known please let me remind you that you are loved have you forgotten that you are needed you are wanted you are not better than anyone here you are not special you are in fact essential and if you do not know that then let me remind you and invite you to check yourself check your baggage check your shields and shells and shackles and shrapnel check your egos your resume your CV your status your income your title your entitlement your labels your separateness your yesterday's story check your priveledge check your prejudice check your pretensions check your denial check your boxes bricks and barriers check yourself this is not about your guilt or shame or blame this is about our real work that will require everyone here in our room crossing from one side to the other we are bored with the old phobias that pertain to how we look and how we identify we want new problems in this room that will require everyone here wear any skull can calcium and collagen a crucible any brain a blacksmith to forge metal of both spellings your brain is built of bridges your brain is nearly literally lightning in the bottle you can think the Sun faster than its rays can reach you your ideas are faster than light when bridged with simultaneous thought telepathy is real among friends and lovers and family and we know this may be hard pressed to prove but we are willing to try though the poets have known since before they knew they were poets published lauded or otherwise singing songs of madness like I pulled the word bird from the word bridge come take this leap with us beyond reason there is no reason to believe you are not needed exactly as you are from every misbegotten step every wrong deed done unto you every wrong you have done unto someone else however you have come this way if you are in this room if you are in earshot if you can carry this as a memory to be told and retold as it was told to me then here are four words on variation that reverberate louder now than perhaps ever before now more than ever what you say matters what you live matters what you create matters we understand the wounds of this world may not be our fault but they our indeed our responsibility and if we let them those same cuts and wounds can be a source of progression and remedy that we may utilize to transmute and improve upon the pain fear agony and confusion that has symptomatically arisen from the world stage as in our own backyards as within our own hearts our heart a bridge between life and death containing within its pulse both our heart and ever wound always bleeding so that we may live that pumps blood to our organs as courage pumps life into our virtues our heart which always has room for one more and then another making space for all that we think we cannot take even as we forget about and read about Charlottesville Texas Texas Burma Zimbabwe Las Vegas Puerto Rico Syria West Bank Florida Malheur Chicago North Dakota South Dakota New York New Zealand Flint water and paradise burning from Oregon coast to coast to coast which is why in this room we make room for anyone who refuses to waste any more fire on burning any more bridges when that same fire can be used to warm our homes and light our way and cook our meals that we may share together in this room we acknowledge everyone here in attendance as a member of our family growing our ancestors from past and future present for those who love this land long before we landed I am talking to you directly as my eyes follow lines on the page committed the truth if not yet memory we can in fact grow stronger from practicing those bootstrap pull-ups on shoestring budgets and making bare souls like teeth we are committed to making space for that which we do not understand and even if nothing more than same Obon done before new style or sound we sung before new child new crowd few hundred more we come in scores like music scores not keeping score we dream big without losing sleep in fact we don't sleep we just rest like heartbeats we are of that mother tongue as mother tongue is mother drum we are pro versed and not adverse to conversation this is our work and if this is revolution then let it be so but let it be that our revolution will not be a grand eyes we will not make this any more or any less than it need be and if this is revolution that may it come with the willingness to sacrifice our fears on the altar of our dreams to surrender to stand and stand being corrected on the grounds that standing our ground may not always be effective we are all in this together so keep on asking for axioms keep on pushing the proof like a flood in the basement and a fire on the roof and the oceans are rising and the sun's coming through but we got nowhere to go we can't go there with you like pipeline bloodline Baba pumping the proof there's a flood in the basement and a fire on the roof wash my hands and my patients finding time to pollute we got nowhere to go we can't go there with you no one no one is one if we can't have it too we've got nowhere to go if we can't go there with you there is no guarantee any of this won't work thank you [Applause] [Music]