I'm Major Jackson and this is the slowdown.

And this is the slowdown. down.

If I could change careers as an artist, I'd likely want to become an average. If I could change careers as an artist, I'd likely want to become an actor,

something about all those voices and the power of speaking in relationship to my

feelings and those of others.

To have all those characters bouncing around in my body.

I'd relish the absorptive pleasure of remembering lines and immersing myself into the worlds they create.

I'd work at a precision of movement on stage and meticulous facial expressions to carry whole scenes.

My worry as an actor, however,

would be the risk of sublimating my true self

beneath layers of characters, that I lose a sense of me.

That is, I would struggle to manage the barrier between my real life and the stage. I fear my personality and

emotional responses would become an amalgam of my favorite characters.

I realize this is a projection of the fear of losing myself in the performance of being

human.

Today's poem shows that beneath the underpinnings of the art of performance is a real person who strives to define themselves while also achieving expressive feats that become, in the words of Jorge Louise

Borres the shapes of our dreams, everything and nothing.

Act. Pose with fingers as those cigarette, puff puff,

by India Lena Gonzalez.

Once more, unto the breach, once more Mama has a bad habit of snickering every time I say the word

Theator. Every time I say the word theater.

Theater.

...