Some years ago, I created a group called the Open Group at Bedlam Farm on Facebook, it is now called the Creative Group at Bedlam Farm. Even on the group, people often ask me why I created it, and what it is really about. I can’t offer any better answer than to point to a piece by Susan Popper, a writer and photographer and member of the group. it is called “How I Saved My Life,” and the title precisely reflects the story, which is about her painful decision to leave her husband, an addict, more than a decade ago, to leave him and her work to rebuild her life.
The piece is important on many levels. It will, I believe, have a profound effect Susan, a medical tech worker who lives in Long Island, and many of the people who get to read it. It will affirm her desire to write and be creative in her life, and her difficult decision to live her own life. To save it.
Creativity has saved and altered my life also, it gave me voice and strength and a way to heal and understand my life, to reclaim it from pain and sorrow and fear. The same is true of Maria. Susan is brave to write such a piece, and the idea of the Creative Group was to create a community where she might feel encouraged to do so and safe to do so. The fact that she was able to write this piece and publish it confirms for me the idea that true community is possible, and can work, even in the polarized and angry and violent world that sometimes seems to swirl around us.
Sadly, the communities of the Internet too often reflect the hostility and cruelty that are inherent in the human condition.
My passion for blogs does not come from a love of technology, but an appreciation for how creativity can heal, give voice and identity. That is why we are having a blogging weekend for Pamela Rickenbach of Blue Star and for others. Susan has opened a big door for herself, she has come out, shed something she hid for many years and did not know how to talk about. You can read it for yourself. And if you share my feeling about it, or even if you don’t, please feel free to let Susan know.
Even on the group, there has been the perhaps inevitable anger and conflict and politics that seems to infect every gathering of human beings anywhere. I have been disappointed in the anger and pettiness that sometimes surfaces there, in them, and sometimes in me.
But that is rare. It is a safe place, hostility is not tolerated.
The group is not for people who are afraid to express themselves – they will need to deal with that themselves, in the appropriate way, with the appropriate healers. I do not mean for the group to offer therapy, that is unethical to me, that is something professionals need to treat, as I have learned. I meant for the group to offer encouragement and safety. That is what Susan has said she found there. No one, surely not me, can make someone else be creative.
That is up to them. We cannot rescue other people, we can only cheer them along their path.In the past few years, this has become a direction for Maria and myself, something we both believe in and care about. I am overwhelmed to see how many artists Maria has inspired and encouraged and uplifted. Sacred work for an angel.
Susan’s piece is a triumph for her, for the idea of a safe and creative community. It is also a skillfully crafted piece of writing. She has shed the drama of it, there is no self-pity or lament, she is not seeking soothing or sympathy. It is so very real, something it is difficult for many to achieve. It is a simple and straightforward piece of life, a reminder of the pain and challenge that is never unique to us, but inherent in life itself. It can be understood and overcome.
Coming out in this way, as Susan has done, freeing oneself from the strictures of a fearful and aspiritual culture is not simple or easy It took Susan years to do it. She said it was one of the most difficult things she has ever done. In the Kabbalah, God says he has given every human being the creative spark. Those who chose to live honor it.
The creative spark is coming alive in Susan for some time, she has set out in recent months to re-discover Brooklyn, N.Y., a place she remembers as a child. Her photographs have been poignant and striking, she is learning who she is and telling us through her work.
The group is for the Susan Poppers of the world, determined to free their inner spirits, show up for life, find their voice in any medium – painting, writing, photography, art, Batik, fiber, poetry – and stand up to the world and say “my story is important, and I will tell it in any way that works for me, and face the world head on and with no shame and apology.” I called Susan this morning and talked with her, and we were both much moved.
I told her I believe her life will be different for her from now on, not perfect, but different. I can’t wait to see her tell us how.
It is not often you get to read about how someone who is so self-aware saved her life. Check it out.