Trees along the Charles River, Boston Ah, the color red. For several weeks that hue has been a touchstone for the unspoken for me, an indicator of another realm. It started with the trees. What a fall this has been in New England, with the color coming on with an orchestrated polyphony. The red leafed […]
Ideas
Shadow Dancing
I’m still combing the beach of Bly’s small book, A Little Book on the Human Shadow. In some ways this is a sequel to my earlier posting, The Thatness. Bly is so open about his woundedness, in person and in his poetry. I don’t think I know of another poet who is so unabashedly brought […]
The Thatness
From a distance Closer still I’ve been in a silent streak these last few days. Is it because the fall is so exceptionally beautiful this year that I am feeling even more speechless than usual? Perhaps. But also I think it is because I’m deep in a dig. This time it is a new curiosity […]
When Small is Powerful
One more thing to love about San Francisco Sunday night I went to hear a lecture at Lesley University by Thomas Moore (author of Care of the Soul) and Richard Tarnas (Passion of the Western Mind) on the topic, “Soul and Cosmos: A New Way of Imagining Life in the 21st Century.” I have heard […]
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Narrative or Episodic, or Both
Falling water: Is it narrativistic or episodic? An excellent article by Lee Siegel (author of Against the Machine: Being Human in the Age of the Electronic Mob) appeared in the Wall Street Journal. At first blush it may seem to be yet another Robert Benchley “pick one” dichotomous probe (It was Benchley of the Round […]
Sheepism
Nicholas Wade, one of the better scientific contrarian journalists, has written about why Jared Diamond’s blockbuster Guns, Germs and Steel is misleading as well as why cats are, without question, utterly useless. (That last topic garnered thousands of emails in passionate protest. Many cat lovers, myself included, are convinced that felines are angelic energies embodied […]
Crossovers
Chris Anderson, author of The Long Tail and now Free: The Future of a Radical Price is out promoting his book. (I know, I know, the irony is too tempting isn’t it? No the book is not free, and neither are his speaking engagements. But I digress…) Now with a review in the Times Book […]
Withinside of Honeycombed Consciousness
These days I’m finding a welcoming berth in the words of others, probably since most of my allocation of expression energy is being spent in the studio getting ready for an upcoming show. The coinage I’m minting in that travail happens outside language, so encounters with well languaged and well spoken wisdom are particularly appealing. […]
Seeing is an Inside Job
Rothko Chapel, Houston The truly great ones are fresh continuously, repeatedly. Like a painting you can sit in front of for hours and never fully grasp. When I was just beginning to study art, I asked my professor about Mark Rothko. He and de Kooning were the giants of the generation of artists who inspired […]
Gender Diversity and Financial Success
The arguments have been active and unresolved for most of my adult life. The gender issues that continue to lace through our lives, politics, organizations, educational institutions et al will probably never be “resolved” since they aren’t equations with definitive answers. I’m alternately discouraged and encouraged, heartened and disheartened, struck by the fractal, “haven’t we […]