to be heard

Last night I went to an open mic night at Toomer's coffee. Toomer's is a fairly well known coffee shop, it happens to be my favorite. But one of the great things about it is that it is located off campus so it is not nearly as busy or loud as some of the other coffee shops around. Well last night was a completely different story. People filled the entire store. There was no distinction between the line to order coffee and line of people trying to navigate their way to their friends, who were inevitably in the farthest corner with no seats around them. There were so many different groups of people interacting and pulled together all because of an open mic. The music that was played varied from great cover songs, to not-so-great cover songs, to original songs, and to original made-up-on-the-spot songs: it was fantastic. As the night progressed, I detached myself from the music and the business of all that was going on and thought a lot about how we all have this desire to be heard. I think that our desire to be heard sits in a deeper more innate desire and that is the desire to be known. I know that I is a desire that I have. I want to be loved in light of my faults, cherished in light of my forgetful nature, comforted in light of my stubborn pride, and broken in light of my own futile plans. I think that desire expresses itself differently and uniquely for everyone, but the desire and efforts are always there. In this particular case, the desire to be heard was expressed in song. But I ask you, as I do myself, to consider what it is that your life is saying to the world, and by whom do you desire to be known?