Glass Pieces of 2012

Sunrise in Louisiade Archipelago December 23rd 2012

I may have done little things this year that may not count as significant. In no way are they a waste of time. Many little things put together in a basket carry the weight of great things. It is the compound value that makes me proud as an individual. The year has been a little slow sometimes. Other times life was fast paced that to remember every second of it is impossible now.  We can only remember few that are captured in the Steven’s Window column of The National newspaper of Papua New Guinea.

Steven’s Window has enjoyed one more year of satisfaction in providing informative reading materials for followers of this column. In reviewing the existence of this column I am both humbled and fulfilled as the author of this column.

I remain committed to the community I write for. The weekly thoughts and observations about events, experiences, and effects of social political meanderings in our fast changing society have served as the glass pieces glued together to form the window in The National newspaper. I captured some of the local and national happenings. Others I just let them pass me because others would pick them up. There are some things I can write about because I feel compelled to do so. Others I just cannot. In 1000 words I can only capture as much as I can, but not everything I could have captured as readers tried to remind me sometimes.

Sometimes the ideas shared in this column may not have landed on welcoming surfaces. Sometimes the ideas may have drowned in the deep ocean of the Pacific. In most cases I am convinced that Steven’s Window had opened a world that many readers at first thought was closed to them. I hope that the Window has made a difference in the way we see life or respond to events around us. It may not be a major difference, but it is a new perspective with a difference.

I have maintained a type of voice that is not aligned with any political parties or their adherents. The Window has always been a simple person’s voice that everyone can understand and communicate in or with each other. I have tried to remain committed to making simple observations that in our busy life we may have ignored. The column has remained committed to speaking about our common experience rather than about something out there, beyond us, beyond the here and now experience.

The column is an outreach part of my life as a writer, scholar, and academic with a life commitment to see the development of Papua New Guineans in different walks of life. The ideas shared in the column are for many who do not have the same privilege as some of us have. In some sense the outreach I am engaged in is in part social activism in the sense of sharing my ideas and thoughts and in part cultural activism in the development, promotion, and valuing of culture, arts, literature, books, libraries, literacy, education, and other related aspects such as policies and their developments.

The experience I gained in providing a weekly column is that I am comforted with the sense that people are really reading the Window with enthusiasm. Every week the column, except for few, I have tried to maintain a sense of interest in the kinds of things I write about.  I hope the faithful followers of the Window have seen the world in a different way to one that they were used to. 

To those who looked through the Window and saw nothing perhaps it is not the right window to view the world. The Window with which we have viewed the world through this year is one too narrow and more focused on specific topics than it might be for many.  It is only one view of the world. There are many views and perspective, which we cannot always hold through the narrow prisms of the Window. Perhaps other windows must open up.

The thing about writing is that you have to find some outlet, some venue to express yourself, or simply find the right canvas to paint the pictures you want as an artist; to use that apt metaphor. Simply, said, this column has given me the opportunity to exist and be heard as a writer, where the opportunities to do so are few in this country. A traditionalist I am, when it comes to writing, because the print media serves as the foundation for launching my writing life into other media venues.

I admire some of the writings in the electronic media that I am part of as a reader, I still prefer using the traditional print media for one simple reason.  Having something printed on paper has a magical feel that propels certain kinds of emotions only the writer of a work can feel.  It’s like your first love which you cannot let go no matter how many others your meet in your life. That deeply buried soul that propels you on, but which refuses to die deep down there in that world of the writer. Great writers draw from that deeply buried soul that inspires them to go on writing.

This is the last article for 2012. I would like to take the opportunity now to thank all loyal followers of Steven’s Window and wish you all a Happy New Year 2013. May all the dreams, visions, and goals that you set for yourself come to your doorstep in 2013. Remember, to do your 101 goals in the New Year. I will do mine. To achieve your goals you must take the right actions starting the first day of the New Year.

I look forward to the NEW YEAR and to continue to share the journey with you in the year ahead of us.  I hope 2013 will bring you great happiness, good health, abundant wealth, economic security, solid relationships, and a long life. 

God Bless You.