that does it for me

So I have been trying to figure out what is the THING that I ought to be doing in the evenings instead of getting lethargic and reading in bed; what is my project, other than playing with Kami when he is never as available to play as I would like? It seems to be emerging slowly, the strands are coming together, the way that my desire to work on behalf of indigenous people and their languages and my art can inform each other. I need to be assured that whatever is meaningful enough to me to do with joy is meaningful to the world.

Poets, artists, philosophers
hold the keys to the living
breathing aliveness of a culture
hold the spiritual warp intact
breathe into the heart with
a persistent sigh,
peering into the unknown
probing for its faintest heartbeats
listening to the last words of
every moment.

I might be organizing a party to raise money to buy a transmitter for Radio Ixchel: a community radio station in Sumpango, Guatemala, where Kaqchiquel is endangered. The government stole their equipment (since they're "illegal") and they have been off the air for close to a year. I called people today to get testimonials for grant-writing, and the people I work for were very pleased. In fact, the notion of gender equality receives no mention in the social milieux EXCEPT on the community radio station human rights program, where it is making a difference. Just talking to these people, learning about their situation, asking about the use of the language clues me back in to the kind of service I want to be doing. I go back to thinking that the best art has to be political, that the work that is most worth doing is in direct service to people whose cultures are threatened.