wave of modulation

y earn

We can’t help being thirsty, moving toward the voice of water. - Rumi

unit(y)

Years ago, I read a book written in the first person point of view. It was fiction. I felt very angry that the authors of this grand book would create and overtake the voices of other people. I felt they had taken ownership of the words and the voices of others. And it made me furious for months. My professor at the time wisely looked on, read my papers with interest, asked me questions about the root of my feelings. But she never disagreed with me. Later she told me a story about anger, which I will tell you tomorrow. - - - - In group therapy, I learned to roleplay - speaking as though I was someone else in the group, I expressed the feelings she had shared with us. These were the feelings she was too angry and hurt and confused to say to someone in her life. These were the feelings she felt there wasn't enough room to say. I found that speaking in the first person can be a powerful exercise in empathy. It can also be a powerful way to practice hearing your own voice. Owning your voice, owning your heart. Now I'm finding that I crave hearing that voice more and more as I grow older. I want to hear people speaking in the first person, openly, honestly. Speaking about themselves. Not blaming or poking fun at or trying to define other people. I want to hear their real voices. Now I'm finding that I don't mind when people respectfully "try on" the experience of another living being. It doesn't sound the same way to me anymore. Those voices, those words don't feel like theft to me anymore. Now that I own mine.