Coffee Can't "Woke" Me

Being a journalist has always been a hazardous occupation.  The act of being a writer remains viewed by many more as a hobby than a "real job".  It's "lovely dear, but how are you going to pay your bills" attitude that many artists face.

 It's as hard to put a dollar price on a mere word as it is a dance move, painting or a song. Ours is a primary platform of pure audience validation. You love us or walk away.  We generally don't get bought on a whim like a chocolate bar.  

As artists of various genres, we struggle.  We can struggle internally, physically and fiscally in striving to communicate the depths of our visions.  It's what we do. For you.  Because in every artists soul is a desire to tell a story,. To communicate something so tied into the human experience we are willing to sacrifice daily meals and more regulated life to "get it out there".   It's as much a "calling" as the Church, military or politics.

I sit here, today, writing in a friends garden. Thanks to a few pandemic twists of fate, I am houseless.  That basically means my suitcases are always packed and ready to go.  In social media terms, I am a Digital Nomad. That sounds much more impressive. It's all in the -words.  Nowadays, it seems you are only homeless if you live in a tent under the freeway.  For some reason, the locality of being near major roads and intersections colors the perception. If you're in a forest, in the same tent, you're officially camping. Alternatives are  clamping, boondocking or  caravaning. Thanks to the pandemic suddenly the nomadic or gypsy life is a cool and acceptable Thing.  Who's laughing now? It's a new world.

Being a writer these day has acquired a recent aura of freewheeling, rebel freedom! Yes, some of us love it for the inspirational banquet that is. That being said, like everyone else, the bills still need to be paid. Gas, repairs, general "stuff" and, sometimes those pricey electronics.  Laptops, cameras, internet etc.  Our vagabond life comes with unusual price-tags. 

Which begs the question, what is the fiscal worth  of a word?  Generally it writes out between .10 to $1.00 per word. Photos extra, hence the cameras.  To this point, I have written 362 words.  That equals out to anything from $36. -$362.  Sounds great? Average cup of coffee (with a shot of something) $4.50. Gas coming in at $3.99 per gallon, etc etc.  It takes a lot of paid words to keep a writer alive. Hence the whole it's a "calling" thingy.  Even Hemingway had his Hunger Years. "Words don't come easy" as F.R.David sings.

Which brings us to being "woked" and "cancelled". Verbs versus adjectives.  I personally don't wake up properly without my cuppa. Sweet with cream, thank you. Cancelling my Premium LinkedIn account is due to value perception. I feel I get more from my morning coffee. But being Woked before my coffee is enough to cancel out the rest of my day.

As I look out at our post-pandemic New World, I wonder is it the shiny and new as we strived for in the protests? As a writer, I hear the wolves howling outside the proverbial tent. Content may be king in the marketing world, but the current Cancel Culture movement has deep and dark implications for any and all writers, journalists and marketeers. Our Freedom of Speech amendment is being scarred and slashed with a perceived "good for all" approach that has echoes of the Spanish Inquisition and other equally dark historical moments. 

Censorship historically has a very bad effect on artists.  The more recent MaCarthyism movement in 1954 decimated Hollywood and many other genre artist voices. Any voiced alternative to the new social opinion was silenced.  Books banned. Movies banned. People banned. Notice a trend here?  We might feel like jumping in our vans heading for the safety of that forest soon. 

The struggle for artistic freedom and "voice" is embedded across the world and throughout our history. Artists were in the thick of it as early as 480 BC with the playwright Euripides. Nor was he the first. Artists and writers have been on the run for centuries. Every time the Dragon named Censorship crawls out of its cave.  Good ole St. George may have taken one down, but there is a nest of them somewhere always ready to come flying out.  

We are in Dragon Days again. Dr. Seuss may not be your cup of tea but someone else likes his brand.  Safe to say, millions of children have loved him. And, that is what this is all about. Love and hate. Opinions. Freedom of Speech is a Constitutionally embedded right to express how you feel. Without worrying about having your head chopped off.  Censorship has created some very imaginative "corrective" measures throughout history.   Freedom of Speech/ Expression  includes not being "cancelled" for religious, racial, political, cultural, artistic or any other differences.  Sounds a little like diversity acceptance right?

 Inclusive is not exclusive. It's time to slay that dragon for good. It's time for artists and writers to have an un-censored seat at the table and a full plate without checking for Damocles and his damn sword swinging over our heads.  It's a real job.

Cancelling Culture- Here We Go Again