there's this great play www.wischik.com/lu/senses/fever.html called "the fever" by wallace shawn, the bad guy in the princess bride movie.

so i know some of you are activists or have strong feelings about the current distribution of wealth around the world. and by wealth, i include cultural wealth: knowledge and access to information, in our case, the ability to read music, perform, etc.

so how can an american opera singer do something about inequality?

can a person justify spending many hours each day working to perfect her art when she ought to be working to make concrete change? even teaching music seems like something that should be done after everyone already has enough to eat and a place to sleep at night. you know?

but seeing as how i won't be fully employed as a singer for a number of years yet, there might be time to do something helpful as a day job, but really, how many jobs help shift wealth from those who have it to those who need it? except perhaps teaching - shifting cultural wealth. but here's the thing with teaching: if you work with young people who come from low income households, even if you do a great job, you might just end up training workers to perpetuate the empire. many of them will want the "american dream" and can you blame them? there needs to be a more equitable system for those people to enter, right? and it takes funding to create such a system, or to change our current one. but how many capitalists would like to fund such a change? must that work also be done for free? but then i have three jobs: artist, activist, and another job to feed myself. how will there ever be time?

i can't even get myself to practice today for my performance on friday, even though i have no obligations except packing to leave in two weeks, and a whole apartment to myself with plenty of food. if i can't sing under these circumstances, how will i sing with two other jobs?

and yet, millions of people take three jobs, tedious and backbreaking, and raise kids besides. so why won't i practice? and i even have the resources to move to new york, or at least try to. practice! practice!