Vanity Card #10

We often tell ourselves we don't need to be understood.

That we don't need anyone to give us the feedback we need from simply being ourselves.

That we don't need our voices heard, our work acknowledged, our feelings reciprocated in order to survive.

For a long time I lived by this principle.

Now I've come to believe the opposite.

By no means do I believe we need to be validated by Society.

However, I do think that we need constant support from other humans.

No, I don't mean co-dependency.

I'm talking about being understood.

Especially as an artist who jumps from medium to medium, I need to be witnessed.

Whether we know it or not, we need a reaction.

Always.

We need someone to be affected by our existence.

When a moving theatre performance ends, the audiences stands and applauds.

The audience does not critique the play right then and there.

They take it in, they let the performance affect them and they validate its existence by applauding.

If a group of strangers can take it upon themselves to watch and dissect another stranger's portrayal of a character, a mother can watch and dissect the portrayal of her daughter.

It's a gaping hole with wind wisping though it when a daughter cannot be understood, cannot be seen or heard, for simply being.