LAST NIGHT

Today, I want to be

a writer.

Tomorrow, I want to be

a singer.

Forever, I want to be 

an artist.

Culture is not some abstract thing that cannot touch you. Culture is: music, literature, film, languages, people and a bigger and stranger mix of all these things and more. Basically, culture consists of a lot of art and things related to art. Art is when, every time you read a story, listen to a song or see a play, you feel a pull towards this story, song, play and you're suddenly no longer the reader, the listener or the spectator. You are the song, the story recounts your life.

Art is inspiring events reminding every fibre of your body that you can change your world, you can make it brighter, darker, the centre of beauty and laughter, you can tell it your way. And even better: it can change the way you think about life, how you express it and how you communicate it to others.

I was at a concert a couple of weeks ago. A Singer of Songs stood in a dark and slightly damp cellar with his fellow musician Laura Räsänen. He with his guitar, she with her violin. Both with wonderful voices for heartfelt lyrics. I wanted to be a singer, a guitar player, a violinist and a songwriter. I wanted to be on the road with my music in the trunk of my car. Music was the most important thing and while I listened, I thought I understood the real truth of my life and of the lives of others a little better. I wanted to be everything and the music made me feel like I could be everything.

Last night, I went to another singer-songwriter concert. In-between the fabulous songs and tunes from Nashville, Kirchheim and Brooklyn, a young author read from one of his novels. A familiar feeling rushed through me and cleared my mind from all the worries and crap it had accumulated during the past weeks. Benedict Wells, the author, had also been one of our three jury members for the second [Lautschrift] issue and it wasn't necessarily this particular story he read that touched me, the most important thing was that a young man was telling a story to an audience. Everyone should be doing that. I wanted to do that. I wanted to be a writer. I always wanted to be a writer. Sometimes I am, sometimes I ain't.

Experiencing nights like these makes me feel alive and inspired. There's no way, not one single reason why I can't be all those things I want to be. Culture and the art in culture can take you to all sorts of places, and if you're lucky, it leads you a couple of steps closer to yourself.

I feel inspired.

I feel ready.

Let's go.