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ALK THE TALK by Eleanor Whitworth
Life consists of rules and limitations. It’s like an obstacle course of elastic ropes. When you push against them they fling you back, sometimes full of energy, other times fatiguing and enraging you because no matter which direction you go, they’re there, and must be dealt with. Despite the frustrations, I like parameters. They define space and often come with a shift in sensory experience, which provides the pleasure of pattern recognition: the smell of blossom, voices amongst birdsong, branches against sky, the shape of a galaxy. Parameters are also freeing because they encourage focus, and focus brings depth. Depth brings intimacy and understanding, and when you understand, usually, you can accept... I find it comforting that our identities are generally predictable: so‐and‐so is like this, whilst so‐and‐so is like that. We are conservative organisms. If a behaviour works, it is repeated. If we accept a world‐ view, we live by it. We are also highly adaptable, and it’s reassuring to know that when patterns are no longer useful or healthy we can shift our behaviour through mental and physical practice. But, as Dr. Norman Doige puts it: “Plasticity is competitive.” To change requires discipline, and that can be challenging. Having the choice to change is also about having the luxury of awareness. Broader society shapes us. Being part of an organisation means playing a role. Sometimes we create the part, are happy with it, other times we are dictated to, or numbed by routine or continual demands. Many brains and many bodies create amazing things: our food, our shelter, our knowledge and the sharing of it. Organisations can support ingenuity and satisfaction. They can also favour certain styles of behaviour. Just as different people elicit different aspects of our personalities, different organisational structures can suit us or not, can empower us, or not. In bringing action and language together with two other parameters (a green space and an hour) Walk
the Talk is a space for reflection, communication, memory, feeling and inspiration. How often do we walk without a destination? Some people may feel pressure about which path to take because agency is brought into focus, because it’s important to make every minute count, because it’s important to have control. Of course, to take a path and not know where it is leading does not mean that you are lost. And then there is the talking. Or maybe not talking. Our capacity for connection, for empathy and learning is amazing. You can change my mind. I can change your mind. Our respective moods may mean that I am more passive and you are more forceful, or visa versa, or back and forth. There may be discomfort during the interaction, but also space for surprise and room for transformation. A friend and colleague, Pauline Cady, said to me recently: “...life is so much richer for there being alternatives. I’ve never understood why people don’t understand that the purpose of an alternative ‐ and it doesn’t even have to be a particularly effective alternative ‐ but the purpose, is to give air.” I sometimes forget that I have alternatives. I forget that I can rearrange aspects of that elastic rope obstacle course. Walk the Talk is a space for recognition, and the resulting psycho‐spatial map is a keepsake of that obstacle course at a certain point in time. By charting an individual’s pathway in relation to others’ pathways, the map also highlights the fact that we are here together, working together, experiencing together. In loving memory of Clara Heyworth Eleanor is a Melbourne based writer and film‐maker. Her short stories and essays have been published in Meanjin and Craft. This piece was written in response to an early concept brief about Walk the Talk ‐ a project created by Cultural Value that invites people to walk alongside an unknown ‘other’ in a public park. A derivative of this project, Walk the Talk@Fringe, will premiere at the 2011 Melbourne Fringe Festival. Go to www.culturalvalue.com.au for more information.