From the President: Stop Making Sense

Among the curious sounds of our recent past stands the band Talking Heads, whose song Stop Making Sense seemed less command than invitation, urging men and women to cast off the dull coat of imitation. In their rhythm and peculiar grace there lived a spirit of bold self expression, rising in quiet defiance against an age too eager to press every soul into sameness and forget their design.

Now we find ourselves in a new decade, wherein a small number of mighty corporations gather the channels of speech and vision into their keeping, determining not only what shall be made, but what shall be seen. Thus the citizen is gently fashioned into a customer, stripped of inward compass, taught to desire without question, and left in a loneliness most profitable to those who sell him meaning.

Therefore I submit that the remedy, though humble and uncertain, lies not in further obedience but in a renewed wandering of the spirit. Let each person step beyond his door and hazard a little folly, for in bad decisions there may dwell the seed of uncommon good. Make art that confounds even its maker, travel to places that stir both wonder and unease, read books no hand has pressed upon you, and take up pursuits for which you have no audience. In such acts we recover the rough edge of our humanity, the sense that life is not a script but a field. And though many efforts shall fail, as they must, yet from these wanderings may arise voices, friendships, and creations that no market could have ordained, and no timid heart could ever discover alone.