UNLEARNING

The Prologue

There is one universal truth that echoes through the tale of history.

A truth that extends beyond the limits of language, of religion, of time: if something rests with you to create, you have a responsibility to bring it to life.

Over the years, I’ve rested in reflection—my mirror and me—holding space for a slow and quiet unfolding. I let each metamorphosis bloom, then fall away, trusting I would know when the words had matured.

The shift had long been approaching. I simply held it back—until I couldn’t. It arrived by visit of cruel persuasion, the kind only catastrophe dares to offer. A most unwelcome gift. The kind that makes you question who sent it.

Unmarked. Unexpected. Almost as if recklessly delivered to the wrong address.

We’re met with unanswered calls—no voice on the other line. Only silence. And in that silence, the longing begins. Not for noise, but for the voice we adored, to come back and fill it.

And when the moment finally arrives, it is heartbreak who stands at the door.

We are left with only two choices: to release what we built, or be haunted by what was meant to live. To carry the dream forward, or let it echo in the silence we never filled.

This project was incubated through every stage of its evolution—until the words were ready to chart their own course. And when the message revealed its form, it no longer belonged to me alone. The words fell away—because it had grown.

The word, now ready to live on its own: UNLEARNING.

-Morgan Mercer

Dedicated to my creative co-pilot for all my ‘out there’ ideas,

Esmond Harmsworth