From time to time, when thinking and writing about the kinds of things I like to think and write about, I encounter a serious challenge. That challenge is, “How do I describe a feeling without using words that have become increasingly over-used?” When talking about the Impresario, for example, I’ve often used the word “Connection,” but the truth is, I really am bothered by this word.
I’m bothered by this word because it is overused. In circles of entrepreneurs, authors, other bloggers, psychologists, podcasters, and other twenty-first century weirdos, the word “Connection” pops up ad nauseum. Perhaps this occurrence of the word first started because we realized we were experiencing so little of it in this age of social media, smart phone hypnosis, and cyberfriends. But now the word, it seems to me, has lost much of its power.
I don’t like a cliché anymore than the next person, so my first inclination is to simply go ahead and use a new word. These days, I am using the practice of blog posting as a way to explore my ideas about the Impresario. The concept of the Impresario, to me, is rooted in personal interaction. This interaction happens in two ways, often at the same time: 1) sharing and collaborating in Art, and 2) relating. This second way, “relating,” can happen on so many levels, and it’s really key.
So if I’m going to find a new term for “relating” that’s not the now-cliché word “Connection,” I have to take all this into account. I’ve already thought a bit about it since yesterday’s post, and it seems to me that the best word to replace “Connection” would be “Intimacy.”
It may sound a touch extreme, but the Impresario is an extreme character. And in this conversation, if “Connection” goes out the window, we need a new, stronger term to describe really the same Feeling, because the Feeling is what we’re ultimately getting at. I like “Intimacy” because it implies a sense of closeness and vulnerability that is essential in the new way of making and presenting Art.
So in blog posts from here on out until further notice, I’m going to be using the word “Intimacy” quite a lot, rather than “Connection,” to describe what happens in the collaborative process of Impresarios. That is, until I get tired of it, and then I’ll have to find something else!
If any of this hits home, tell me about it by sending an email to piersonkeatingmusic@gmail.com. Thanks!