LittleAtom – the backstory
INSPIRATION BEHIND LITTLE ATOM:
As my friend Adam was dying of AIDS he began giving away his energy. He was a performance artist and continued to go up on stage for as long as his body would allow. He became frail and susceptible, but rather than let the illness wring his life out, he began passing his energy along. Whenever he saw you he had some beautiful token of life to give ~ an autumn leaf, a yellow squash, a photo. Once he gave me a copy of The Little Engine That Could, inscribed within the cover “I Know You Can.” It remains one of my dearest possessions. His message was that we need to remember how lucky we are to be here, and how much we can do with the energy that we have. I began to see death as a passing of energy, and the claiming of that energy as a human obligation.
The name “little atom” is an homage to my friend Adam and the little bit of energy which he sent in my direction. He taught me some of life’s greatest rules: believe in yourself, act with integrity, and always be grateful that you are alive and energetic. It’s up to us to push our energy forward, to stay creative, to envision a better world. Because it does only take a little bit of energy to get a creative idea started.
Words I heard Adam often use were “we are the stars of our own dreams” ~ a truth imperative to embrace, yet so very easy to overlook. Dream because you can. Let your energy kindle all of those little atoms. Create something good.
Adam Gale:
Photo by Gregory Staley, Washington, DC