Manifesto For The New American Dream.

I think in a lot of ways, I’ve lived a very atypical american experience.

I always try to count my blessings. I understand that the inherent privileges our culture has afforded me aren’t extended to the entirety of our citizenry. I was born to a loving, happy family, and even though we were torn apart by cancer when I was just a kid, I know that I was given a base from which to build on. When I found myself orphaned, alone and unready at 16 I knew even then that I had it better than many of my peers. Grief excused my initial absence from education and the reality that I had to fend for myself eventually forced my decision to take dish washing over finishing high school.

I guess I could classify my twenties as fun, playing in bands, drinking a lot and always deep somewhere inside my mind reminding myself that none of it really mattered. I would surely find the fate of the dodo sooner than later.

Turns out it takes work to garner extinction, and as hard as I sometimes tried my life just kept plugging along. Years of dumb luck and minimal effort eventually began to breed some desire of substance.

I happened into an opportunity to turn an old abandoned warehouse into an art space. A couple of my closest friends and I bled for than place, fixing, painting, sanding, varnishing. I scraped together everything that I had to buy lights and hangers and eventually we had a gallery show. I owned a gallery. It was one of my proudest moments, opening those doors for the first time.

We had a couple of really good years, and we showed a lot of people some really good art. The cycle of capitalism caught me off guard one morning when I was told that the building was changing course and that my beautiful little space, the first thing in my life to give me a true and clear sense of worth was going to be turned into office space. I was heartbroken, for the first time in probably too long.

I didn’t see any real alternative than to leave my little town, I couldn’t take the weight of defeat that had settled on my shoulders. I wandered for a little while trying to recreate my previous experience in a new venue, but the truth is that I didn’t have the courage to start new from scratch. At the time I felt a level of hopelessness that was new for even me, so I just decided that I was going to wander. If I couldn’t decide who I was going to be, then maybe fate would take me under her wing.

Two years ago today, I got in my crappy little car packed with camping stuff and started living my life with a fledgling sense of direction for the first time. I decided that I would work towards being the artist that I’ve always secretly dreamed of becoming. It wasn’t easy to take that secret, and put it out to the world, but I was willing to wait and see what happened. Photography was always my personal passion, but I’d never made myself focus to the point where I could achieve anything more than an novice appreciation.

I’ve since traded that little beater in for a luxury home on wheels, 48 square feet of go anywhere, do anything paradise that has taught me that I am not judged on what I have, but hope to be judged by what I do with the time I’m given on this planet.

Abandoning the traditional life has opened more doors for me than I even knew existed. I’m able to live my life immersed in nature, driven to find the simplicity of happiness in who and where I am. Letting go of the cultural restrictions that growing up poor and uneducated had bound to me has allowed me the freedom to define myself as the artist and more importantly the person that I want to be. I urge you to get up and get outside.

Today is day seven hundred and thirty of living full time on the road. Sitting in the back of this little nest right now, listening to the rain padder on the roof I would like to offer you my manifesto.

MANIFESTO FOR A NEW AMERICAN DREAM.

My America doesn’t dictate value based on race, creed or upbringing .

My America’s value isn’t found the imaginings of television.

My America’s fate doesn’t rest in the triumph or defeat of political parties that never had our best interest in mind from the beginning.

I believe in our abilities to create our own futures.

I believe that every American has value.

I believe that there is still more to be discovered.

I believe that we as a people will overcome the tyranny of greed.

I believe in caring for and being provided to by this incredible piece of earth that we call home.

You can be whoever it is that you want to be, if you are willing to commit to the process of becoming yourself.

I for one, am proud to say that I’m well on the the way to discovering who I am.

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