Performance Art
Into the Mystic:
Answering the Call that Is Your Own
“The Pickaxe” by Rumi
Music by Richard Williams & Elias Alexander
August 11, 2013 Ashland, Oregon
“Your timing and expressive recitation captured the spirit of the poetry and created a new experience, unique and special. You were in your element . . . the event was healing for us both.”
--Suzanne B.
“I was hanging onto every word, completely forgot I was in a room full of people. It was magical and mystical and profound. Please, please, please do another performance sometime soon.”
--Margaret M.
“I wouldn't have missed last night for anything—it was the
most lovely evening in true Rumi tradition of Sabat. I thought that only Coleman Barks was capable in this country BUT, last night, an
ascendant star took his place (in my estimation, anyway)!
You were beautiful and powerful in theway that strong, passionate women are, yet there was a vulnerability and delicacy underlying the
strength which lent it depth and breadth.”
—S. Newby
Taking Our Life:
Suicide, Ecocide, and Daring to Live
Is humanity suicidal? Maybe it is reasonable to ask this question as we stand on the brink of the Sixth Mass Extinction and face the dangers of global warming. Simultaneous with these threats to Life as we know it, the number of suicides globally has more than doubled over the past fifty years. Are ecocide and suicide connected? Taking Our Life places the audience up against the truth that life is a choice, and to be truly alive means following our own individual call—that juncture where the world’s need and our own longing meet.
The play interweaves the story of losing my sister to suicide with that of Chad, a marine veteran living on the streets of Seattle, calling into a suicide hotline staffed by Lily, a Native American who had once considered suicide herself. An Angel/Spirit-Person as Watcher grows increasingly involved with the fate of these lives. Intermittent video “newscasts” provide a historical and environmental commentary on these stories. The overall arc of the play emphasizes a call to life and living, as we witness these three characters choosing life. Music and song throughout carry the upward motion.
Creation (an excerpt from “Taking Our Lives”)
In the beginning is the Word / And the word begets the world /
And the world is in the beginning / With the Earth. / In them is Life, and Life /
Is the light of the world. / And the light shines in the darkness . . .
And on the First Day
the throbbing force of
14 billion year old stardust,
beats inside us
as the beginning and the heart of Life.
And we see that it is good.
On the Second Day
the pulsing cloud of every atom,
Sees and hears,
Touches and feels,
Smells and tastes
Loves and yearns
In us as us.
And we see that it is good.
And this is the evening and morning
of the Second Day.
On the Third Day
We stand before the altar of our heart
and breathe in the suffering of the Earth,
of bewildered beasts as forests fall
and honeybees lose their queen
and salmon lose their way.
We breathe in the pain
of those in war
and chaos in the mind,
the ache of those who long
to hear the voice that calls them.
We breathe in the
named and unnamed
and offer it all
here on the altar of the heart,
and so breathe out,
into the weave of Life,
relief and comfort,
compassion and joy.
And thus we proclaim
the evening and morning
of the Third Day,
and it is good.
On the Fourth Day
the people and nations stand
before the World Court,
and they begin:
France apologizes to Africa
Spain and Portugal to South America
Russia to Eastern Europe
Spain to Jews
Jews to Arabs
Arabs to the Middle East
China to Tibet
The US and Canada to Native Americans
The US to Africa’s descendents,
to Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Nicaragua,
Afghanistan, Iraq . . .
England to nearly everyone else
and nearly everyone else to each other
and to the Earth,
as forgiveness slowly rises
in the promise of a new world.
And this is the evening and morning
of the Fourth Day.
And on the Fifth Day
We take our life
In our hands
declaring, Here I am.
Hineni,
And then we live
in such a way
that our final gift to those we love
and to Life itself
is in the way we die.
And this is the evening and morning
Of the Fifth Day.
And it is good.
On the Sixth Day
We bow low on the earth
with lifted palms
earth to Earth
in gratitude for this
that we are made in the image of,
in endless change of shape and form.
And we ourselves at last
beyond the borders of good and evil
and gods that divide us,
bowing down to the one and only
holy blessed earth.
And this is the evening and morning
of the Sixth Day.
And it is good. All of it
is good.
And on the Seventh Day,
we rest in wonder,
not knowing whether
we’re at the beginning of the story
or in the middle
or at the end.
Not knowing where it came from
or what it is or where it’s going,
But only that we are here
And we carry it on.
From “Taking Our Lives”
© Shoshana Alexander 2015
Radio Interview: Healing from Suicide Loss
This week Shoshana Alexander joins Julie and Susanne to share her story about suicide loss and what helped her healing process.
Courageous Grief Talk – KSKQ 89.5 community radio