Is it possible to blog incorrectly?

I'm not a blogger, but I thought that I would add to the conversation since I was invited. I would characterize myself as a Christian with strong faith, but weak follow-through (in that, I have the tendency to make my own decisions and trust that I know what will make me happy/fulfill me). But I have a hard time with conversations about God or faith that remain abstract. I have to ground it in my life experience. So, I thought I would share something that I wrote recently for a course assignment. We were asked to write our personal manifesto (a public statement of intentions and principles). The process was difficult for me (though one I highly recommend) since I felt that declarative statements are hard to commit to. And though I am supposedly an adult now, I feel a bit unformed. Right now I feel it is important to define myself not in opposition to something, but for something.  The structure of it reflects my fragmented thoughts, but hopefully it will add to the conversation. 

Whom can I ask what I came to make happen in this world? (P. Neruda)

1. The self is already collective.

Art is a social practice, the space between otherness and connection.

Who is my neighbor?

For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me. Matthew 25: 42-43

My life is wrapped up in the least of these.

Will you enter in?

Will you be passersby?

Will you walk alongside?

Will you let yourself be carried?

Remember:

Melissa, from the trees beneath the trees

The smile from the man crossing the street (you are not invisible)

Sitting quietly next to Megan

Listening to Mom talk about her quilts

"... you and me both involved. We (with a capital W sometimes include(s), other times exclude(s) me." (Trinh T. Minh-ha)

2. We are authors of our own lives.

Art: experience is interpreted.

Forms, signs, objects, and actions produce relationships, create subjectivity.

One day the stories inside us will become a public resistance that will remake the world.

3. Place: City

Seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Jeremiah 29:7

And when you change the landscape is it with bare hands or with gloves (P. Neruda)