I only discovered Amanda Palmer a year or so ago, when her TEDTalk --"The Art of Asking"-- made it into my Facebook timeline. I watched it, cried and immediately shared it to my page with the following introduction: "This talk is intuitive, beautiful and brilliant. It speaks to humanity as a whole, and might be especially worthwhile to all of you artists out there."
That's how I've come to feel about Amanda in general, when I listen to her music and read her blog and Facebook posts--intuitive, beautiful and brilliant--someone who speaks to our humanity through hers, in sometimes messy, sometimes mind-blowing, always real ways. She's not especially worthwhile only to artists but to anyone open to her way of being, anyone drawn to the power of rawness, anyone who's crackling to live their lives a bit more fearlessly, a bit more honestly.
I admire this woman so much because what I see and feel her inspiring in her fans is a fuck you to convention by way of a fuck yeah to self-realization. A fuck yeah to being whoever the hell you want to be. A fuck yeah to creative expression of all sorts, with all looks and sounds, for all types of spirits. It seems to me what she strives for the most is truth, and her truth is helping others awaken to theirs.
I'm a big fan of truth, of living truthfully. It takes courage to do so in a world that conditions us to be just a fraction of our whole. Amanda Fucking Palmer (the Fucking is not my embellishment but the name she's often known by) lives a whole lot more than a fraction. She's doing what she wants to do, but not without the insecurities and fear that come with being free. I feel her insecurities often in the things she writes, and every time I am more deeply inspired by her commitment to freedom--of expression, of ideas, from ego. I think what she's doing is silly and profound and deeply important. She's showing us all what it looks like to be yourself, by being herself.
I'm not sure why I felt compelled to write about Amanda Palmer today, or what is it I really want to say, other than she is a superstar in my heart. Maybe I just want more people to seek out the art and compassion and brilliance of this woman, because her truth empowers, her truth provokes, her truth comforts, and her truth heals.
She's got her first book coming out on November 11th--The Art of Asking. I will read it, of course, but I don't need to in order to recommend it. I've listened to plenty of her music, I've watched a bunch of her videos, and I've read many of her words. Her book will be just right. It will be another beautiful expression of her truth.
Amanda Palmer is easy to find online, and I recommend finding her--on her blog, on Twitter, on Facebook, on YouTube, and eventually, in your consciousness, where she'll serve as a wonderful reminder of art and humanity for freedom's sake.
P.S. Amanda Palmer has no idea who I am or that this is being written about her.