July 29, 2014

Dear Good, New Blog Readers,

 I am here in Syracuse at the Institute for Communication and Inclusion, the door of communication for many people who type to communicate. I addressed an audience along with Tracy Thresher and Scott Brodie in a workshop about how typing has changed our lives.

I hope you enjoy it.

Mark

A fun thinker.

Mark Utter and Larry Bissonnette at the Summer Institute at Syracuse University’s
Institute on Communication and Inclusion.

I am Mark Utter from the great state of Vermont and I too am delighted to be back here in Syracuse with you again for another dose of typing love and forward moving communication. I am totally excited to be sharing the stage with my Green Mountain colleagues and our fabulous facilitators. I want to focus my time here today on what facilitated communication has done to my life. I think it so helps to describe my life.

In my movie I am in here which, incidentally, we have freshly printed copies of today here for sale, I address the audience with these words.

"I am Mark Utter.  I was born with some neurological differences that make it hard for me to be a participant in a world of spoken words. When I was young I was moored in an inaccessible sea.  I was forever wishing people would realize I was inside thinking and wanting them to know.

'I am in here!'

Luckily a man named Pascal arrived looking to find some sign of life in my lost boat. My heart leapt at this miracle."

It is true.

I spent many years of my life as an outsider and I did not want that so I kept sending out quiet requests for assistance. Pascal Cheng, of course, showed up and then my stellar work and communication partner, Emily Anderson. Emily and I have done some incredible work together and more is coming. I will end my talk with a report on that

Someone has more recently come into my life and that is my dear friend, mountain man Tracy Thresher. The power of my good friendship with Tracy is a new force of energy. Before this I relied heavily on the friendship, counsel and heavy handed manliness of my mentor Russ Bennett. How magical it now is to have a friend I share so much in common with. I love that we can connect and make astute comments to each other. We are from the same culture and yet we are no less manly than very loved George Clooney.

We talk about good wishes we have for housing that is conducive to the new men typing our thoughts has allowed us to become. I am heartened to learn there has been so much innovation in housing in Vermont for people like us. We want to ride that wave.

And now on to the big news.

I am proud to announce the formation of my company which is called Utter Communication Strategies. Its web site, www.utterenergy.org will promote our movie and current projects. It will also host my blog, Utterly Mark, and elaborate on my future endeavors. I hope you will log on and join our communication revolution.

Thank you all for being part of the life I have dreamed of for years.

We are all living in our motto of “Loving it all forward.”

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Mark presented this speech at the Summer Institute at Syracuse University’s Institute on Communication and Inclusion on Monday July 28, 2014

For more information about Supported Typing and the ICI click here.

January 2, 2014

I am here at Speeder and Earl’s and it’s the start of a brand new year. I am excited good Emily is clear in her joyful heart and I am too.

I just met with Larry Bissonnette and it was an awesome start of a good friendship. Our ways of being human are very different and I think are both effective so it will be cool to see how we influence each other. I addressed him softly and he swore a bit till he realized I don’t want anything more than to be friends.

“Good.  Thanks for clearing that up.  You are okay in my book.  That’s cool.  You are a good friend.  Really Mark.  Yes. Yes.”

                            - Larry Bissonnette, a fellow typer

I am glad Emily heard Beethoven’s Ninth on New Year’s Day. A great home it is for Schiller’s poem. No one can survive this life without abiding love and a love for the power greater than themselves.

I am thinking about some ways I might use my skills to promote this without sounding like a fundamentalist preacher. Ranting like the guy who thought Emily would make a good preacher’s wife is not my style. So finding a home for my writings is my goal for this year while Emily gets her career moving.

Of course it is a given that I will screen “I am in here.” more and continue having wonderful conversations with people who come to see it. I am so proud that we produced that piece of work. As I wrote to Werner Herzog “My current film is rather predictable and only is meant to introduce me to the world and people who might want to really learn how I communicate.”

I am not sure what the future holds but I can only assume it will be even brighter with two bright suns in my life.

I am going to ask Emily to look up more often. Sure good pennies show up on the ground but the big money is found creating projects and the discipline to make them live.

Be well all.

December 26, 2013

I am now going to talk about a plan that I and Emily are slowly and steadily working on and I and Russ will see through to the end.

I and Emily are cleaning your minds of stereotypes of people perceived of as stupid. I and the soldiers of communication would like you to move into the camp of believing that I and others like me have some useful things to say.

In a related writing Max Erhmann says you should “listen to others, even the dull and ignorant; they too have their story.” He said that wise thought in 1927 and we will be in 2014 next week. The fact is we very much worsened as a society when we went into the depression. We somewhat improved in the 60s and 70s but the cold war of our hearts is in play all around us now. I always assume the worst so I like what else Max says about humans being overall good.

“You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here.  And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.”

Oh, dear reader of today, I am wanting to say that I and Emily are unfolding this plan and I will tell you one part of it involves people taking more time to “Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence.  As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly.”

I am delighted to share “Desiderata” with you.

It is wanting a good resurgence again. We found this at the end of the journal of a 25 year old fisherman from 1976. You can find it on line.

On with our work we go and on you go with unfolding gently and please follow some of my best words of advice from 2013.

“Taste the rain and feel the pulse of your easy way of being human.”

It certainly has worked for Emily who using these powerful words found the fisherman many years later doing all the good things mentioned in this writing.