by Genevieve Van Cleve

The Revolution will be orderly, quiet and systemic. The Revolution will not be birthed by yelling a bunch of tired, old metaphors to people who've heard them before and already buy into the notion that the world needs fixin'. Yelling is often annoying, less often empowering. Yelling takes up space, whereas Revolution moves us to act, lights us to give away pieces of ourselves so that others may suffer less.

The Revolution recognizes that suffering, like healing, has always existed.

Revolutionaries don't have uniforms or time for speech making. After a hard day of necessary labor, revolutionaries go to Unitarian Church basements to teach adult illiterates to read.

Revolutionaries are allowed to smile, laugh, and fall in love. Moreover, they may make mistakes, change their minds, and forgive while still serving The Cause that changes as the needs of others change.

Revolutionaries recognize that families, friends, children, and lovers need attention. That The Cause, however just, does not preclude good night stories, electric bills, and trips to the dentist.

Blind faith alone never healed a sick Christian Scientist. Rabid Devotion never protected the innocent from the lapping flames at Salem or from the IRS. Ego did not build the pyramids or discover how to safely transfuse blood to the injured.

Revolutions require inclusion. A successful revolution has never occurred without both genders, a variety of ethnicities, and a slew of personal faith systems. Revolutions understand the need to proclaim one's own uniqueness and realize once that voice is discovered that it may not be used judiciously.

The Revolution may, indeed, be televised if revolutionaries demanded better programming. Boycotting South Park or Dawson's Creek saved no one and changed nothing.

-- Grandmas who take the time to write letters to advertisers and the Congress
-- Parents who attend to the needs of chil dren
-- Children while playing
-- Lovers while kissing
-- Poets while pontificating

All could be considered revolutionary.

We all are woven well enough to be, at moments, if not revolutionary, extraordinary.

The recognition of possibility, steeped in an understanding of past events and portrayed as hope wrapped in a veneer of respect and honor...well, now that...that is revolutionary.

Revolution is the calming of the mind and soul until they co-exist in quiet repose. Only then may they draw collectively from the energy within and commit acts of compassion, self-healing, and love powerful enough to kiss life into the chapped and bruised lips of an ailing culture.

©1999 Genevieve Van Cleve.
[Genevieve was a member of the Austin Slam Team in 1996 and 1997. She got rave media on her recent tour to Denmark.]