MUTSA

It has been some time since we last spoke, you and I. I sincerely hope that the road has not been too harsh on you. I hope that in that time you came to assume (if you had not already) a peace and contentment in your being. As for me, not much has changed. As ever, I have tried my best to understand who I am, and perhaps extend that reasoning to the greater world around me. Or maybe I look outward so I may glimpse what is within. Nonetheless, I am still very much concerned with expression and its significance, both personally and on a cosmic scale. I think that due to the ego of man, it is inevitable that we would relate what we experience to something grander as perhaps a reflection of how we view ourselves; that is, the ego shouting to hear itself. Maybe this ambition of being is, as much as anything really the basis of what I term ‘logical hope’ – the force that would drive even the most pessimistic individual to continue to strive, as each inhalation of air is a manifestation that there is something worth being awake and alive for. I digress – all I want to say is that it is good that we are here together. I have deemed it so and so it shall be – a good thing. As I expressed before, I hope you are well.

Stall 13. It has as it has always been – a crossroads in the middle of nowhere. A place for all and none, a refuge from the daily nonsense of the mundane. In the shadow of its gaze, you and I are but the thoughts we think and the emotions we feel, and all that is needed of us is that we make no one apologize for their being, that each person is given space to speak their heartfelt piece and we exercise our freedoms with the mutual understanding that we are as free as we allow others to be. Kim Kardashian-West’s husband, Mr. Kardashian-West once delivered a lecture at School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), and spent some time outwardly pondering (as he is oft to do, apparently), on the power of an idea. The notion that a single person’s idea can bring about seismic change should be a ludicrous assertion; and yet it is true.

We speak very much of monotony in the social, whether it is everybody deliberating on the same things in the same way on social media or everybody simultaneously waking up one day and deciding that baggy jeans should only be worn by astronauts, war veterans and 50 Cent, there is a definite constancy in general communique. It is a comfortable thing, to all be on the same page, until we are not (as I argue, is inevitable), and then it is stifling, and now we look at ourselves in the mirror and really we do not know who we are. Or worse, we are uncomfortable with others who do not fit the precedent. Throughout human history, it has been considered a most vulgar thing to be different, and today not much has changed. It has been months since last we congregated here but the Stall is as necessary as ever. How can you ever hope to survive the glaring Sun, the ever-biting, swirling sands of the desert without ever visiting an oasis? As I alluded to earlier, the Stall’s erection was based on an almost entirely selfish premise, a place where I could be free – but there’s no reason why it should be for me alone.

Much has transpired in the time we have been apart, but that is not surprising. The only constant thing we can accurately qualify is change, after all. I have given some thought to purpose – specifically, mine, and as has become apparent through my pattern of thought, ours, not as a society but perhaps as a community. It feels that my faculties are dedicated to thinking on things I cannot know and whilst stumbling along these ways that lead to nowhere I come across smaller, certainly more attainable gems to digest (it is a demonstration of my high and indomitable self-esteem that I wold refer to my everyday ideas as ‘gems’). There is the constant feeling of there being something that I have gained, or realized, but what it is is not always clear, but the feeling that it will become apparent to me is security enough. In our time apart, as you may have gleaned by now, I have done a lot of nothing, expounding upon that nothingness in a most satisfying and frustrating way.

I had no intention of breaking my silence but the Stall called and who am I to ignore her call, small as I am. I have never known what it is I will write until it is written, and as we conclude this brief interlude in our great silence, I say now that if I am alive and I am able, then the Stall will stand. Or perhaps the Stall stands as long as you all do. Think of this, if you will, as the teaser trailer for ‘Stall 13: Season 2’. Much of what will be explored will be concerned with how we live and love each other, as common people, how we personally reconcile our definitions of good and justice, my overwhelming wit and sense of self (which knows no end), and perhaps I will have an idea.

Until next time;

Create something new. These Aladdin and Lion King remakes are exhausting – we are more than baseless nostalgia. We are more than the baggy jeans we wore.