“The world is made of magic and we are all to some degree magicians.”
“Start telling the stories that only you can tell, because there’ll always be better writers than you and there’ll always be smarter writers than you. There will always be people who are much better at doing this or doing that, but you are the only you.”
~ Neil Gaiman
At the root of true vodou is a belief in the power of individuals to call to them what they most desire. I believe it. As an advisor, writer, and teacher, I worked with design professionals to identify and articulate their values and aspirations, to embrace and strengthen their cultures, to name and own their territory. Along with the work I have done with and for my clients, I have developed my own narratives, claimed my own territory, created my personal connections to people, places, and ideas.
One of the most magical talents we have is our ability to tell stories. Myths, fables, parables, tales — whatever we call the stories we share, they are the keys to the common storehouse of human experience. We create these messages for a wealth of reasons — to entertain, to inform, to protect, and to teach.
I am a storyteller. Personal stories about identity and family, about places and artifacts that have special meaning to me, about culture as I understand it. Stories that I hope will help me and my readers understand the past, shape the future and live fully in the present.
It was as a graduate student in literature at the University of California San Diego that I came to understand the concept of a critique.