Kelly Gibbons, artist and writer, about me

Wednesday, January 21, 2004

I believe there is more to life than struggling to pay bills and working your ass off for 40 years only to enjoy a few good years. Yeah, I know, welcome to the bandwagon.

I also know that I am here for a reason. I have been searching for it forever (so it seems). In July I finally let myself believe that my purpose was to write. It now occurs to be that writing is the tool. The purpose is to help. I have been looking back at journals and see a common theme. In every description of every perfect job I have ever described one of the must is "my work will involve helping others."

Again one of my many, duh! moments. Very often the obvious is right in front of me and I completely miss it. So, I am beginning to see that what I want to do with my writing is to help people. The big question is in what way?

I am going to write something now that is very scary to me. Something inside just keeps telling me to write it and even though I have been screaming at it all morning to shut up it won't go away. I have been thinking about it for awhile and for the last two days it keeps popping in my head and this morning it just will not go away. My logical self keeps saying don't send it, people will think you are a freak. But the little voice (OK maybe I am sounding a little crazy right now) keeps getting stronger and stronger, and if I am going to be at all productive today I must silence it.

Deep Breath. Here Goes:

A few months ago I saw a man on TV who was Holocaust survivor. I can't remember his name but that news cast vividly sticks out in my head. He was saying that there are not many survivors left and if their stories aren't told he's afraid they will be forgotten. When I was listening to this man an idea came to me that other people should learn their stories and be able to re-tell them. I thought of the Vietnam MIA-POW bracelets that people wore and thought this could work for this as well.

My idea is that each bracelet would have the name of a survivor or victim and each bracelet sold would come with that person's story (and possibly a picture). When the person wearing the bracelet is asked about it, they could tell the story. Even if the bracelet stopped being worn, the person wearing it would always have the story and would I am guessing pass it along someday.

Now that I have written this, posted it, and totally feel like an idiot, I will try to get some work done.

posted by Kelly @ 1/21/2004 12:20:00 PM

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