Carmen wrote ****. **** begged to see her stories handwritten, the large C’s full and heavy, sliding underneath the stroke of her pen, the small a’s, gravity creating delightful roundness, rising in a stroke for the r, circling its soft head, coming out again to **** the m, sliding into the e, its cursive tongue in so many words and finally the hard bulge of the n, thrusting skyward, then finishing off with a long stroke, a generous flourish of release. Carmen considered, the barrel of her pen hard between her moving fingers, her response came, teasingly, a spellbinding yes.

This is a performance piece. It should be said with energy, it can be happy or tragic, but you need to sell it. Let the audience make up their own stories to go with the comment.

[Point at someone in crowd]
“You, I thought you were my friend.”

[Pause]

[Find someone to focus on each time]
“and you, did you think I wouldn’t know?”

[Exasperation]
“You knew me,
I was right there.
Waiting.”

[Pause]

[Matter of fact]
“You could have done it different.
You chose to do it that way.”

[Pause]

[Smile sweetly, gently]
“I wanted to marry you.
Surely you could guess the reason.”

[Pause]

[Passionately]
“I loved you,
and that’s it?
That box?
[sarcastically] Thanks.”

[Finish]
“No, really, thanks!”

What can we do once we are ordinary?


Mother Teresa an ordinary nun, just a woman.

Oscar Romero an ordinary cleric, just a man.

The Beatles an ordinary band, just musicians.

An ordinary office worker changed all of China when he stopped the tanks in Tianamen Square.

An ordinary woman changed the rules about ****** harassment in the American workplace, by accident, just trying to embarrass a Supreme Court nominee.

An ordinary housewife changed the world. In a peaceful way. In a non-violent way. Corazon Aquino toppled the might of the American-backed Marcos regime.


We need moms and dads, teachers and technicians, people who work and people who play.
Pearl divers and trash removers. We need ordinary people doing ordinary things everyday - like being a carpenter - to make our world an extraordinary place.

What can we do once we are ordinary? We can save the world.

I had to put her to sleep
It was the humane thing to do

She no longer enjoyed her food
She could hardly move
She would growl and snap if anyone came near

I had to put her to sleep
It was the humane thing to do

She no longer cared for herself
Overwhelmed, endless
Pain we couldn’t **** had become her killer

I had to put her to sleep
It was the humane thing to do

Begging for death, her drugged eyes were
Silent, without hope
She barely swallowed water; she cried when touched

I had to put her to sleep
It was the humane thing to do

Mom gave us love and laughter, she
Gifted us with joy
She had been my life, and now I was her death

I had to put her to sleep
It was the humane thing to do

Nature’s beauty
Nature’s bounty
Man proposes
Man disposes
And soon it’s washed away

To light a lamp
To run a plant
All what man would
Nature ever changing

Nature’s beauty
Nature’s bounty
Story sacred
Fundamental
When two hearts want to share

To link their lives
To show they care
One way man would
Nature never changing

Nature’s beauty
Nature’s bounty
Land’s colliding
Shaking, breaking
Floods take lives, growth survives

Bringing our future
Seasons turn time
Choose what man would
Nature creates change

Holding onto reality with both hands
His social life in a cup of coffee as he waits
Swamped sinking lifeboats
No longer accepting applications
For jobs that have sailed away

Buried alive, a napkin waiting its turn
To be plucked out and used
Then thrown out
Lucky if recycled and repurposed
To a younger man’s vision

Torn apart, his skills repackaged, Frankensteined for each resume
The boring job of cutting checks means he was
A bookkeeper, an accountant, detail oriented,
Friendly to external and internal users or customer service driven
Or any combination of above.

Leaving his car at home, he walks,
Afraid of running out of money for gas and repairs
Wondering what pieces he will put together today
Reducing his years of experience to a tweet
Comprehensible to the child in charge of his future.

Do oceans dream?
Do oceans have nightmares?
Do whole populations scream?
Do school children du mer
Bleed out while bodies team
With tumors breaking bare
Do we care?