Gratitude Conversation #4

[The Stage is on Fire] is a page-turner in which, much like life, there are no easy answers and yet each step of the journey yields insight and hope. This work of heart must not be missed!

Melanie Faith

Creative Writing Teacher, Essayist & Poet.

Katie Steedly’s first-person piece [The Unspeakable Gift] is a riveting retelling of her participation in a National Institutes of Health study that aided her quest to come to grips with her life of living with a rare genetic disorder. Her writing is superb.

The Society of Professional Journalists

In recognition of receiving the Dateline Award for the Washingtonian Magazine essay, The Unspeakable Gift.

I thank you … It is the authenticity of your “class notes”; and it is the delicacy and skill with which you present the nuances of classroom life and the actuality of your students’ and fellow teachers’ lives.

Maxine Greene

Philosopher and Education Scholar

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Gratitude Conversation #4

Seth Godin. Leonard Pitts Jr. Justin Sullivan.

Why Gratitude?

In 2017, heartbroken and eyeballs deep in despair, I started searching for things for which to be grateful. I asked myself the question asked by poet Katie Farris

“Why write love poetry in a burning world? To train myself, in the midst of a burning world, to offer poems of love to a burning world.”

I reached out to people who — in the way in which they live — write love poems to our burning world. I cast my net far and wide amongst my heroes — those I knew personally and those who teach us all by their example. I invited artists, philosophers, psychologists, politicians, professors, yogis, writers, clergy, and others into a dialogue about gratitude. I am deeply grateful to those who said yes. Read more about my gratitude project methodology here.

Seth Godin

My first gratitude conversation was with Seth Godin. I originally shared it on the website Grateful Living. It feels right to share our conversation right here and now. I could run out of breath describing how Seth moves about the world, making it a more creative, excellent, and generous place. Our conversation holds a special place in my heart. I am grateful for Seth. I have told him so. He continues to answer my questions when I ask. He inspires me with his thinking and writing. He teaches me about the value of my tribe, making and keeping promises, and what it means to show up daily and be remarkable.

Leonard Pitts Jr.

In a career that now spans more than 40 years, Leonard Pitts, Jr. has worked as a columnist, a college professor, a radio producer and a lecturer. But those are just the job titles. If you ask him what he does – what he is – he’ll tell you now what he would have told you then. He is a writer. Millions of people are glad he is. They read him every week in one of the most popular newspaper columns in the country. Many more have come to know him through a series of critically-acclaimed books, including his latest, a novel of race, faith and World War II called The Last Thing You Surrender. Pitts’ stubborn devotion to the art and craft of words has yielded many awards, chief among them the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for commentary. – From www.leonardpittsjr.com

Justin Lawrence Sullivan

Justin was born and raised in Lubbock, Texas and began working for Cirque du Soleil as an artist in 2001, first on the show Alegria and later on the shows La Nouba, Kooza, LOVE and with 45 Degrees (a special events division of Cirque du Soleil).

He served as Assistant to the Director of Creation/Artistic Assistant on Cirque du Soleil’s Charity Show, One Night for One Drop 2017, and later as Creation Coordinator for One Night for One Drop 2018. He also served as Creative Assistant to writer and director, Krista Monson, and Casting Advisor during the initial creation period of the Freidrichstadt-Palast’s newest show in Berlin, VIVID. He worked on Cirque du Soleil’s touring show, KURIOS, as Artistic Assistant for a portion of their Japan tour.

He is currently the Artistic Director of Cirque du Soleil and Xintiandi’s first resident show in mainland China, X The Land of Fantasy now playing in Hangzhou, China. I draw upon on my experiences as an artist in various roles and acts combined with my creation and show management background to offer a unique and versatile perspective within artistic management.

Read my gratitude conversation with Justin here.