Something to Say

Caroline 10/22/19

Creating a thing is a strange conversation that occurs between the voices in your head. The thing you’re creating usually pipes up at some point. You, of course, can’t avoid the sound of your critics. The imagined words of your denigrators and the hoped for cheers of your supporters. All of these voices swishing around in your brain with their ideas and opinions, every one a distinct perspective with their own agenda. And you have the dubious distinction of coordinating and balancing these perspectives. Trying to actually make a thing. 

If there is an imbalance. If one voice gets too loud, paralysis. Often a bizarre narcissism has to win: the belief that you have a perspective to be shared, that your ideas and words will add something important to the world, that you can make something new that matters. I struggle with this. I am firmly aware that mine is not the strongest nor smartest voice in the room. I know that my best work is done collaboratively. 

My preferred process is when a group of people identify a problem, brainstorm answers, and make each other’s ideas better.  The best outcome is when conclusions are such an amalgam of ideas, improvements, and adjustments that no one can remember who the final decision belongs to making it the intellectual property of all parties. This is my favorite way to learn and create.

This podcast is a collaboration between Sara and I. But it is also the accumulation of years of experience and wisdom of the people we love. The ideas that we’re recording are basically a compendium of the brilliant and beautiful minds of our community. The memories tell stories. The solutions are collective and they are only one step in the process.

I think ultimately to create this thing we let our fundamental desire to be in community to win.We wanted to start a conversation, to make a space, and to widen that circle. Instead of the conversation happening in our heads individually we planned that it happen out loud for all of us to hear. We invited the people we love to participate in the design, and music and the incredibly arduous process of creating the thing. 

Now, comes the even more exciting part, the response. The conversation that comes after the thing. The interactions that affirm and convict us. It is exciting to receive texts and Facebook messages that thank us for making space. It is equally exciting to hear ideas for future episodes and learn what people want/need space for. It is humbling and inspiring to enter this new part of the process. 

We know we will get it wrong. And we hope that in those moments the community will lean toward us and tell us the truth. I hope for hard complicated conversations. I hope for laughter and tears. I hope for opportunities to learn and question myself. I hope to share a thing that makes it easier for someone listening. And more than anything I hope for us all to do this together.