1. We are the editors of life. We cut and paste its daily beauty and pain with the sharp scissors of our minds on the canvas of humanity. As human beings we can only assimilate the world through selective perception. The more we train our perception, the more aware we become of the world around us, in its light and darkness. We turn into what we digest on a daily basis. Due to our spongy nature, we must absorb carefully.
2. We regard Art as a dynamic matter of Now. Art is not just a museum affair. Objects are less than people, and no work of art is ever finished. We are our own living collage of images, memories, experiences, relationships, thoughts, and feelings. As such, we must constantly make Art that is synonymous with Life, in order for it (for us) to keep on being art. By existing to our fullest potential we become our own greatest works of art. Whatever comes out of us is secondary to what is already in us.
3. Life is short, and it is running through our fingers. Our hour won't come in some kind of imagined, distant or near future; our hour is happening this very moment. Wherever we are – or are at – we'd like to make it count. Be here now. And now. And now. And now. And now.
4. The only censorship we apply to ourselves in the kind that will censor other people's genuine right to be whole. Love the way you want to be loved, and recognize a piece of you in every piece of life. There are no strangers in this room. It's just a bunch of Us. There are no tribes or constellations. Only lonely stars with a light of their own.
5. Life is homemade, painful, intelligent, and beautiful. We avoid nothing; we want it all. As creators, healers, and journalists, it is our duy to curate reality and communicate it in our own, unique words. We don't want the shortcut; we want to walk on water and on burning ashes. Give us the whole package, even if it takes longer and it demands more. If we're going to have to jump anyway off of life's inevitable cliffs, we might as well pick the highest one and use our own heart as the only parachute.
6. We long for and steer toward the light, but we don't hide or get rid of the darkness. It's only by accepting, integrating, and finally reusing every bit of ourselves that we are able to meet and face life for what it is, in all its brightness and all the shadows it casts. Fear is biodegradable fuel. We will never get rid of it, but we can recycle it into a more human-friendly version.
7. There is no time for apathy or mindless distraction. We're natural, organic, living tissue. We are the skin of a broken world and, as living metaphors, we must reflect it in both its greatness and its desperation. There's so much good to do, much to be mended and healed. One lifetime isn't enough, and giving less than our everything is too little.
8. We regard the human experience as an indivisible whole that includes all aspects of being human: physical, intellectual, relational, emotional, and spiritual. We also recognize beauty and pain as the two common threads running though all of our life scripts. For most of history, our different human elements have been divided, segregated, hidden, punished, misunderstood, and, ultimately, separated from the whole. We want brains and beauty to make peace with each other; we want heart and mind to be friends; we want body and spirit to be a home to each other. All of our parts are created equal.
9. Our virtuality is just the tip of our iceberg-humanity. We are so much more than our words and the speed of our fingers. The internet is, perhaps, the only truly democratic medium left which allows us to reach freely across countries and oceans, intolerance and preconceptions, and dive straight into each other's hearts. Thanks to our online connection, we're now reuniting with each other and, in a strange way, with ourselves. We're just one click away, so close we can almost hear each other breathing. Beyond this screen we're also fleshand bones, with broken hearts and sweaty hands. We must never mistake our frames for the whole picture, but rather use this virtual frame to better understand our real pictures: the true, complex, breathing You and Me and everyone we know.
10. Hey Frodo, it's a lonely battle, and we need help taking the ring to Mordor. In this lifehouse, we collaborate, we share and e-hug daily. We can't do this (or anything) alone. We need each other badly. The only possible form of existence is co-existence. Beyond our own, unscripted individual stories, we're part of a bigger, universal story to which we add every day with our thoughts and actions. We are responsible for the course of events and desperate status of our world. When it comes to technology and communication, we're at a place of synergy and synchronicity like never before. It is imperative that we make a mindful, heartfelt use of it. Please hold my pixel hand; I promise you, the skin is there, even if you can't touch it.
11. We know enough; we have enough; we are enough; we care enough to make it wonderful. Now.
This essay is the creative manifesto of Rebelle Society, an online hub reporting ideas and acts of creative rebellion.