Admittedly, I used to be a figure skater- circa 1995. Yesterday, I attempted and landed a double-axle in my living room like I was back in Jump Class. NO ONE WAS AROUND BUT THE DOG!! I often pontificate upon the benefits of animals possessing the ability to speak. At least if she could speak real human words she could go and tell the masses that her kick-ass 5-foot, 11-inch owner just landed a double-axle in a space the size of a medium size FedEx box, because that's just how Brooklyn apartments are being sized these days to maximize the potential net gains to Real Estate developers resulting from gentrification. I digress. My accomplishment, in part, didn't matter due to the fact that no human was around to witness it. It will not become a story to re-emerge in conversation amongst friends as testament to my stellar physical abilities despite the fact that I have not touched the ice since 1999 and haven't been to ballet in at least 6 months. NO! Nor will it morph into a metaphor for awesome physical achievements: "Yo, you 'Charlie-Axl'ed' the hell out of that!"
I'm just saying. Things don't mean as much if no one else is around to experience them with you. I guess it's like dying- because that's the only other thing I can think of that you go through singularly. Birth doesn't count because you are literally coming out of another person, so by default you couldn't possibly be alone, unless you birthed yourself. And that's just crazy talk. Things, entities, movements, ideas, all count the most when there are other energies, individuals, intelligence around to absorb, reemerge and share such things.
Movements require numbers because of the very power that lies with in the energy of the masses. This applies not only to a physical collective, but a mental one as well. Major ideas in every genre and facet of life from film, music, literature, and dance. Elements in culture connect us and we end up becoming a part of something great. I'm sure an elderly gentleman sitting on the subway beside a wall with SAMO scribbled on it had no idea that the avant garde young author would influence and help to create an entire subcategory of art. Radically changing the way we view cultural ideas and their relation and subjectivity to art. We can all be a part of something great; experience and be motivated by something timeless. But in order for that to happen, folks have to show up.
A Tree fell down in the woods and no one was around. Besides the minute vibration created in the earth from the impact of the tree, it's effect is small. Had the tree fallen, by natural causes of course, just on the outer edges of a village, not only will the vibration be felt, but the wood might used for shelter, to make ceremonial masks for rituals as powerful and ancient as to ward off evil, summon the rains, and forever appease the good spirits. The tree has become a part of something great and beautiful and everlasting.
I hope this post lies not lonely, as the tree that fell where there was no one, although it probably will. I'm going to go now before I get fired. Bye-bye.
-Charlie