CHAPTER I

I was inspired by a bunch of photos I found on a wall in a museum in the south that was part of it and that had some of my ancestors on it. And another part of it was from just all the pictures that I have inherited over a lifetime and then the ones that I’ve very recently been working on and archiving. I’m kind of surrounded and immersed in images during these last three years. And the pictures speak to me. They talk to me like I feel that I can hear what they’re saying at least. I feel that at my very best, I’m listening to the people that came before me and hopefully the ones that are wise and have something good to say, though I have to say that there are bad ones there too.ﾠ
Ones whose voices I don’t want to hear. I do want to learn about them, but I don’t want them to infiltrate my mind. And These Walls is about the battle we have with the things that come before us. And what do we do about all of these lessons and stories?ﾠAnd do we just accept them at face value? So it’s kind of like grabbing all the wisdom that there is around us and at the same time learning to have the discretion to choose between what is actually wise and beneficial for other human beings and what would best be put to rest forever.ﾠ
That is what I’m writing about when I’m writing These Walls.ﾠ

I want people to feel that they can change the world when they listen to These Walls Are Alive. I feel that the very most important thing that we can have is hope. And I want to be one of those people that makes people hopeful because I know what it’s like to have no hope. And I feel that this song digs down and says that there are so many reasons to get up every day and fight for things that you believe in and to make the world a better place. And in this sense of this song, it’s through stories and history, the things that matter to us and the dangers if we don’t learn and get a lot smarter, a lot faster than we are right now. 

I love the opening lyrics. I feel like it’s in the trenches in World War One with the mist floating around and all those young boys dying on either side. And you hear these lyrics – “These ghosts say, I can’t save you now, but I can tell you how,how to live a life that’s brave and free. I can tell you what I cared about, I can tell you what I regret, I can tell you to remember me.” I feel like that is what I want to say to my son and also what I wish so much that older people in my family had said to me. My family is not so great at passing really important stories down, and I’m trying to do a better job when it comes to my son. 

I think that the whole project, These Walls Are Alive is almost completely about how much I miss the people that I’ve lost in my life and how I can bring them back to life through the things they taught me. And that makes me then think about everyone in the world who has people that are sharing with them and teaching them and making them the people that they are. And I’m trying to honor those people. Aunt Alice, uncle Jan, Cruz, Lero, my brother Joel, Lloyd they’re all inside of me. And so I feel that we all have These Walls Are Alive inside of us. Every single human being is made up of other people, and if we’re lucky, we can remember them and keep them with us always.