My meeting with writer Ben Okri this week has shaken me. And I suspect it will continue to for a long time to come. His message and his art is powerful, clear - perceptive to the core. This guy has gravitas, is tough and is inspiring. From my front-row seat I spent one and a half hours sitting 2metres from him, and I spoke briefly with him afterwards. But it was not this proximity that moved me so much: he had exceptional presence, personality and poise that could reach far to (and beyond) the back of the room.He talked about freedom - freedom of the mind. "There is nothing we can do/If we don't begin to think anew." If we are not free in our minds, he said, we are not going to be free anywhere else. Every day is a challenge in navigating and overcoming the limitations and fears placed on us, and which ultimately we place on our ourselves. And this is true. We can let our fears govern us - or we can be governed by our dreams. He talked about self-realisation - about striving for and becoming the best possible version of ourselves that we can be. It sounds so simple, and in principle it is. But it could also be our greatest challenge. The power is within, but how many of us "wake to the [full] power of our own voice", and, in turn, what of our voices - the collective human voice? This voice, this shining, this gold - has to come from within, no one can do it for us. Ultimately, he said, "people have to wake themselves up, and shake the world, shake the world." Every word he delivered was of resounding value and thought. These words were delivered like the beat of a drum, connected to the earth's heartbeat itself. - Or, how the world's heart should and could be beating. Ben Okri is a human metronome for all of us.
Ben Okri is currently tweeting a poem, line by line - one line a day. I share some lines with you here, and urge you to follow it. (twitter/benokri.com) (you can also follow on his Facebook page)
We ought to use time
Like emporers of the mind:
Do magic things that the future,
Surprised, will find.
[...]
We can wake to the power of our voice
Change the world with the power of our choice.
But there is nothing we can do
If we don't begin to think anew.
We are not much more than what we think; in our minds we swim or sink.
If there is one secret I'd like to share It's what we are what we dream Or what we fear.
So dream a good dream today
And keep it going in every way.
Let each moment of our life [...]
Ben Okri was 'In Conversation' @ Richmix, Shoreditch/East London.
