The idea for 'l'écriture vérité' was the result of driving myself crazy trying to find time to write engaging articles and blogs that could ultimately inform our Questioning Everything podcasts (QEP) and THM's work. Ultimately, I arrived at the idea of writing a blog and just sharing it in it's nearly raw and not heavily edited/scrutinized form. And with that, l'écriture verité was formed. But because I can't speak French, we're just going to call it 'raw writing.'
I came up with the concept/name for 'raw writing' after thinking about one of my favorite forms of documentary film: cinéma vérité. According to Wikipedia, cinéma vérité is defined as "a style of documentary filmmaking, invented by Edgar Morin and Jean Rouch, inspired by Dziga Vertov's theory about Kino-Pravda. It combines improvisation with the use of the camera to unveil truth or highlight subjects hidden behind crude reality." While I doubt my writing is going to be anything earth-shattering, I want it to be raw, gritty, and real. So that may include poor grammar and editing, use of vernacular, and other things that I haven't had the chance to fully think through at this point. The key things I hope you will get from these blogs are unpretentious honesty and realness.
For this first official blog for THM, I am keeping it pretty simple. I want to welcome you all into this movement and acknowledge some of the reasons why I decided to start it. First, I believe society, not just in America, is heading into a disastrous place where cancel culture and social media obsession is distracting us from doing the important work to ensure both our survival and growth. Rather than focusing on how we can uplift each other and protect this planet for not just our health and well-being but that of future generations, it feels like people are more concerned about social media likes and follows, the personal lives of different celebrities or public figures, and acquiring as much material possessions and wealth as possible.
None of that will matter if we are facing water crises, surges in prices for common foods and products due to the impacts of climate change, and the extinction of important sea and plant life to ensure we can breathe normally or enjoy years without deadly wild fires and other natural disasters that can be correlated with human activity, such as pollution. I want us to not just survive but THRIVE. And the way to do that is burying all of these divisive ways of thinking that are literally stifling progress. So for the next couple of blogs, I am going to share some of the things I've learned through my education, personal research, and from friends who also want to see all of us do better than what we are right now.
I hope you'll join me and share your thoughts and opinions. But I must add, there are some rules of engagement. No, seriously, there are actual rules. I came up with them mostly because, if this movement is really to be about humans, it has to include all humans. There's no political party or group that has some major stake in the projects, programs, and activities of THM. This a movement aimed at uniting people behind common goals and shared interests. And because of that, we have to stress the importance of respecting every person's human dignity. This is not a place to be an internet troll, spew hateful nonsense, or abuse any person. If we see messages that are hateful, we will respond with love and compassion but will also prevent any person from having to be subjected to any form of cruelty. To get a better idea of the exact types of actions we will take in response to abusive comments or language, definitely check out the rules of engagement linked above.
So back to the whole, THM is nonpartisan thing... It's time to not focus so much on the political parties but on the policies that will effect the greatest amount of change. So, with that, I thank you for stopping by this blog and hope you'll come back for more. The next blog will be referencing a recent episode of QEP that was highlighting the effort to remove Robert E. Lee's name from Washington and Lee University. You can listen to that episode right now on any of your favorite podcast platforms or by clicking here.
Here's a quick snippet from that episode to give you just a teaser of what to expect. More on the episode in the next blog. <3
