A reader compliments Matt on his well-thought-out blog posts and suggests that Matt become a writer.

Matt responds:

Thank you for the compliment.  I am known as a blabbermouth.  I close my eyes, I try to open my head, and I let the Spirit direct the words.

Richard Speer has worked with me for years, and faithfully records all of the conversations and then puts them into the blog.  I attribute most of the really good blog posts that come out of my mouth to the Spirit, and I allow the Spirit to really direct me.

The reality of my life is that I have a form of dyslexia.  I have a hard time reading, and I couldn’t spell “cat” if one were scratching my face.

So the written word, for me, was not the way I learned.  I alweays learned from the spoken word.  I was blessed to have many mentors, and I spent many hours talking and debating and learning from them.

To this day I find it difficult to sit down and read anything I need to that’s important.  Luckily, Rose is a great reader, so I ask her to underline things she thinks I might find of interest, so I can look at it.

When I read the book A View from the Center of the Universe, I found it extremely difficult, but it was so intriguing to me that I took the time to look at it over and over again, so I could have some idea of what it was expressing.

My statements on the Blog are spontaneous.  Quite often I’m surprised when Richard reads them back to me, that they make any sense at all.  I believe that’s because all of the ideas I cherish have really come to nest in my whole being:  peace, tolerance, understanding, hope, and love.

I find that I’m appalled with many of the things I see on television, hear about on the radio, and read about in the newspapers:  children beating up each other, ethnic and religious groups screaming obscenities at each other and blowing one another up...

For my part, it has taken time and effort to get rid of my prejudices and misunderstandings and try to look through different eyes.  I think it was also a gift that was given to me by the Spirit to understand people who have ideas that are different than mine.

As far as our individual power is concerned, we must find that great power within us and nurture it, bring it forward, and send it out into the world.  I believe that’s part of this whole process, and I think I’ve opened up one of those doors.

That doesn’t make me any more powerful, better, worse, sought after, or shunned than anyone else in the world.  It only means I’m trying as best I can to pry open these doors and see what the hell is going on in there, and then allowing those things to be evaluated and put into my life.

Whatever I can share with others, I feel it is helpful to me and hopefully to them, and that other people in turn will come back, share their wisdom with me, and teach me something that they know.

The first person that I talked to about my art was Simone Nathan, a woman who had a fascinating personal story and eventually became a public relations person, and also a fine artist who knew all the do’s and don’ts of the art world.  I spent many hours talking to her, because that’s how I learned.  She opened up my mind to possibilities and to other forms of thought about art.

I came to art from a profession in which there weren’t any alternatives.  You did things one way and that’s all there was to it.  For somebody to allow a discussion of “Why shouldn’t we use linseed oil instead of baking soda or whatever?” was a development that really helped me a lot.

I think that’s the essence of where my ideas on the Blog come from:  the ability to debate and discuss anything and everything in a civilized, non-violent way.  I look on it as a conversation and a gift, and anyone who gives me a gift, I cherish it, and I try to use it.

I believe it’s not gracious to ignore a gift, or to not go looking for it if somebody says they hid one somewhere.  The way I live is almost like Easter every day:  trying to find the egg.  Where the hell did that egg go?

Thanks for the discussion,
Matt