Whatever else Hive may be, it is a place where one personal dreams can be made to come true, in concert – yes, I said concert, with my compliments to the fiery, far-seeing composer who lit my path to Hive – with community. In community we give as well as receive and keep the benefits flowing ... so, both as curator and creator, things came together for me this year!
Portion 1: I Always Wanted To Have A Newspaper of My Own...
I studied journalism in college and indeed became a professional journalist – a copy editor, which allowed me to see how publications are put together from day to day and week to week. I also was production manager for my college newspaper, so I knew I had a suite of skills that was beyond just reporting the news – that is important, but other forces choose how it is curated and therefore presented to the public.
I also knew that I wanted to have a newspaper of my own, but in the “real world,” that costs too much for just a little editor working in the San Francisco Bay Area to even think about – and, beyond even that, newspapers are also dying back. So, even if I had $50 million or so to work with, that might not be the best investment.
But then, Hive fixes all that – specifically with @peakd's wonderful collection function! It came to me at about this time last year: why not organize my favorite Hive posts into a collection with all the sections I would like to see in my newspaper? I already knew how to curate – I was an editor and production manager – so why not bring the skills over?
This Friday, Things Ms. Dee Likes will go into its final edition for the year – and here is the most recent one, full of Hive brilliance on every subject.
@deeanndmathews/things-ms-dee-likes-december-22-2023-edition-51-engesp
I have connected with so many wonderful, brilliant, amazing Hivers because of this work that I otherwise would not have seen … Hive has so much talent and brilliance and beauty and generosity and goodness in its community. Yes, we all know there are some issues, and a good way to keep one's balance is to be immersed, every week, in what is so very good about Hive: the everyday people creating on it!
This to me was also a way of giving back to Hive, as I generally have been well-curated … I thought this year, as so many were being discouraged by the collapse of the crypto market and thus in the price of Hive and thus in rewards, that I might encourage as I had been encouraged through the collapse of 2019 … those who noticed me, who made the time to engage with me and drop a vote and then curate me regularly helped to keep me going. Above all things, there is always the necessity to become a giver, not just a receiver, and thus keep the gift of Hive flowing.
But then also, seeing the brilliance of Hive's content creators on a daily basis to prepare a weekly post reminded me of another dream that someone else had 210 years before Hive came into existence ... an idea a long time coming to birth ...
Portion 2: My Favorite Childhood Composer Showed Me His Dream
A great artist once dreamed of an “Art Exchange,” where artists could come and present their work and receive what they needed to keep going. He lived in a time of war and great upheaval in the social order; despite his greatness, he often wondered if he and later the nephew he adopted were going to be able to survive … and, so great an artist was he that there is still no point in suggesting that he could have gotten another job. I present you Ludwig van Beethoven's greatest work -- his resume to have such a dream, if you will:
I remember reading in Thayer's Life of Beethoven as a teenager about Beethoven's idea … his wish made good sense in 1810, and three noblemen actually stepped up to try to fill it … but, the Napoleonic Wars and the change in Europe because of it killed that. I realized even as a teenager that Beethoven needed a community not bound by the class structure of the world, a community that could work together with small amounts for the artists that it chose to support to provide them enough to keep going, and also provide opportunity to reinvest. But, because of the nature of the legacy financial system even then, and because artistry is not easily commoditized, artists have been looking and looking, and most often not finding what Beethoven knew they all needed.
I realize it was left to me as an artist to be born in time to find out that Beethoven foresaw Hive. I am living his dream!
Portion 3: All the Ways To Tell a Story!
In addition to my journalism background, I am a multi-disciplinary artist … you have seen my photography and fractal art already in this post, and some Hivers have seen me living my composer/arranger/pianist life...
… and singer life …
… and of course, storyteller life. I got my feet wet telling stories of the type I want to tell on Hive's predecessor … the Lofton County Universe continues to roll its fourth year in Freewriters community, with different groups of characters going and coming through and living their lives daily in front of us on Hive with the help of the daily freewriters prompt ... every prompt gives an opportunity for character exploration, growth, dialogue, and discussion of the things going on in the world around us in a way that I hope is both entertaining and uplifting to the reader.
But in 2020, on Hive proper, I also got started with the M.A. Kirk Science Fiction Universe in the Alien Art Hive community, and that allowed me to take my fractal art and put it with my stories. This was the real beginning to the highlight of this year, of being able to combine all my gifts into great tapestries of storytelling – storytelling brings everything that I am together, and on Hive I have been able to finally pull together the rich media stories I have desired to create for my entire life. Perhaps my finest examples have been in Q-Inspired By Music Community this year, where my love for music and photography and faith and philosophy and a good story sprouting out of my non-fiction life has come together …
Again, “real-world” costs were saying “no” when I was an early teenager, and because I am nearly 43, none of what younger people take for granted in technology existed then. I am not older than personal computing, but I am older than the public Internet!
But Beethoven lit the way for me, all the way back from 1810 for him, throwing a light on 1995 for me, so that someday I would know what I was looking at when Hive proper came along: the community in which deep creative dreams can be fulfilled together, with mutual support, and in which as both giver and receiver, curator and creator, I have come into my own in 2023.