Conversationalist, Shared

My personal quest for authenticity with others began with a personal question.  How do I share myself with others?  In what way do I let others in?  In what way can I challenge myself to cease changing colors and start making statements?

The answer to these questions resulted in letters- many letters- in a form of methodical documentation that enabled me to write down and own up to my personal thoughts, fears, joys, prayers and shortcomings.  Writing it down and sending it off to those who had deeply affected me was my first step toward being truer to others.  Eliminating the possibility of changing colors in the afterward, I entrusted to another human the handwritten proof of my shared self.  Throughout the past two years I labored to share more with individuals.  Now I will labor to share more with more, hoping that, possibly, you might also.       

So I begin the next Act of the Dear John experiment sharing with all who may wish to see- who may keep me to my accounts- my personal letters.  The letters comprise, with increasing efforts at entirety, years of reflection and realization.  They do not hide my colors, but instead show all things illuminated at the moment of composition. 

The letters open formerly reserved spaces of my self and my soul.  They are a declaration of all my colors in an attempt to identify them, to document them, and to shed them.  Layer by layer, hue by hue, I hope exiting the Stage might bring me closer with the audience of my peers and ignite a dialogue between myself and you, him and her, us and them, all together.

Conversation One in the Dear John experiment series will post in a NOLA neighborhood near you in the coming weeks.  I invite you to call out your colors and participate in the Conversation in any capacity you prefer.