Cupcakes from Roger last year – Way to motivate your sweetheart!

Life is a chain reaction. 

In fact, all emotions, mental states, physical states, and life events are also chain reactions.

Life in all of its manifestations is an interface.

Or, in other words, an interaction, chain reaction, cycle, circle, or web. There is no individual without the interface that created it; yet the interface also does not exist unless individuals create, experience and reinvent it.

Life is interactive.

It requires and exists in delicate balance between two transcendent “half-worlds” – one of the inside self or individual, and the other of the outside world or environment. Without the interactive collaboration between thousands of different contributors – friends, family, lovers, mentors, spiritual leaders and teachers – the gift of individual identity would never evolve into a full fledged inner realm of personal meaning. Likewise, without the individual to absorb, broadcast, reflect upon, and rebroadcast of the outer realm’s contents, the environment around us would not contain the abundance of ideas, concepts, experiences and possibilities it does now. It is through this mirroring, through the looking glass, through the eyes of others, and of ourselves that we become real. This truth gives us tremendous power to cooperatively evolve and transcend the past.

My birthday wish embodies all of these concepts, and wishes you a year of interactive, connected, fulfilling and beautiful chain reactions. ❤ LOTS, (from Natasha).

Mini Manifesto ~ Extended Birthday Wishes 2014

My birthday wish is that any who think of me take time to look at my Lace Exoskeleton blog, and modular designs.

For my gift to others cannot be shared unless I have the love and support of a community who – like myself, envisions a more sustainable, healthy, and creative alternative to conspicuous consumption and socio-economic oppression of the middle class. By liking, sharing, and commenting, you help me refine and focus my energy so that I can create things worthy of being bought, shared, loved and cherished.

Lace Exoskeleton is how I have fuzed my dreams, hopes, and aspirations – and is part of my attempt to “hybridize” my artistic practice and mental healthcare training. I consider all who purchase my designs to be artistic collaborators, and I invite you to experience the thrill of reawakening your inner creative spirit. The Chain Reactions modular concept was envisioned as a more satisfying, eco-friendly, and intellectually stimulating reinterpretation of the current destructive paradigm.

Every exchange – whether of products, currency or ideas – is a form of support, no matter what you have to offer. Wealth exists in the passion, drive and commitment of everyday people who share their lives to make a functional modern society. As friends, acquaintances, school mates, and family members, we share a connection that empowers us to use our various talents, gifts and skills as potent, life-changing forms of currency which we can use collectively to uplift and inspire others. This power manifests itself when you take time to invest in other peoples lives through your social network – leaving a comment, liking or sharing posts, and asking questions – helping others find things that they otherwise would never see.

Cupcakes from Jess last year.

Your power has the potential to change lives, change our economy and revolutionize the exchanges we make on a daily basis. I dream of the day I can extricate myself from the degrading, depressing wrath of student loan companies who treat myself and many of my friends like slaves and animals to be bought and sold (not to mention marked, branded and controlled). When an artist makes it, support is usually the reason why it happened. Let’s transcend nameless, faceless economic transactions and embrace a paradigm where there are no winners nor losers – no mark up, nor profit, nor planned obsolesence – because both participants trade their wealth for something they need, increasing the wealth of both parties. In both social relationships and fair trades, both seller & buyer, producer & consumer, artist & audience, partner & partner must feel like they are “the lucky one” who “got the better end of the bargain”. It is about what we do to share homeostasis, technology, art and human creativity that gives us abundance – not what we can force others to surrender by force, nor coerce them into believing they need.

My designs seek to diffuse the “predator/prey” mentality of our economic lives, and allow more people to see their own power as investors in one another – capable of making any dream come true.

I dream of sharing what I have for what you have, with fairness, love and mutual benefit. I dream of collaborating, cooperating and exchanging our gifts andd talents to create a symbiosis of human efforts – rather than a parasitic plague upon all that makes us as humans so complex and diverse.

Giving to one who already has excess is an impersonal “purchase”, and the exchange is successful if the seller can inflate the price to make a profit. Giving to one who is in need – your friends, neighbors, local producers, start-ups, small businesses, artisans and neighborhood service providers (rather than large companies) – frees more of us to own our own businesses and give you products actually desiged to improve and enrich your life – not fall apart and make money off of your frustration. To share with your community is to give a gift to people who would otherwise not succeed – even though their products and services are far higher in quality and more sustainable.

My birthday wish is that anyone who reads this chooses to share their energy, resources and wealth (as much as possible) with “the fairest” businesses, uplifting ourselves by uplifting those who truly value, desire and need our contribution. When a consumer becomes a number, we resign ourselves to a life as “livestock”, driving profits for those whose only gaol is to further depersonalize, cheat and deceive us into empty exchanges that leave us wanting more… I