What's important to you? In one word. It's a big question, but it's an important one.
Standing at the entry to Sasquatch, a sparkly vision with stars on his face and a cropped fringed jacket and round glasses and I started chatting.
Meet Ariston - a photographer and creator of the The Important Project. He is about to set off on a journey around America, to find out from people of all walks of life, what really matters to them in the moment he asks them. Answers to his question have ranged from climate change and war and peace to more worldly matters... like cheese sandwiches. The week before, he had interviewed Bernie Sanders and Bernie told Ariston that what he was doing was what was important. I couldn't agree more.
I mentioned that I dabbled in creative avenues. We talked about our concepts and he asked if he could interview me the next day after he interviewed one of the bands, I, of course, said ‘sure!’. He then asked if I would like to have stars stuck on my face. I told him I would love that.
So Ariston painted my face with star stickers.
The next day on the hill overlooking the stage. Ariston asked me to describe what was personally most important to me in one word. In that moment, my answer was there:
“Connection”
Connection with oneself, connection with nature, connection with others. I started realising that this North American journey was about a lot more than I realised. Chasing my dreams was about connection. The difference I want to make to the world is connection. I guess in the seeking of that, I realised that events of the last few years have made me feel a little disconnected in some aspects of my life. A disconnect is something that I tried to avoid and fight fiercely, but I guess in the end, it did happen a little in some areas of my life. Acknowledgement is the birthplace of change and so with one question, answers to questions that I needed to ask myself began to appear. That is the power of a project like this. That is the power of travelling. That is the power of asking questions.
Keep rocking the world, Ariston! The world needs more people like you x