14 November, 2007

Waiting for the Other Shoe

You're driving along the highway. You see a shoe. Normally, it's only one shoe. You continue on. You see another shoe - not from the same pair. Then 300 miles away a boot; in another 53 miles, a tiny pink Mary Jane. Where are the mates? Who drops them and why? On a darker note, I remember as a kid in the 60's, my mom told me about a girl who was kidnapped and left a trail of her belongings behind - a jacket in one town, a sock somewhere else. I realized Mom was obliquely telling me that it was not such a safe world, that it could happen to anyone, that I should keep my wits about me. She was not one for addressing issues directly. Ironically, I think she would have been a great forensic pathologist. She had guts of steel, and her powers of observation made me look like Mr. Magoo.

I saw a Wired Science documentary about scientists who are mapping ocean currents by tracing flotsam. For instance, a shipment of rubber duckies on its way to Washington (I bet to Archie McPhee!) fell overboard and they're turning up all over the world. And another shipment of Nike shoes is doing something really amazing - the right shoes wash up on one beach, the left shoes wash up miles away on another beach. Their shape dynamic helps determine the current they drift on, which then determines the beach!

This makes me want to re-read Skinny Legs and All, one of my favorite Tom Robbins books.

Anyway: shoes are a mystery. If only I could find a really pretty pair that didn't hurt my fat little feet. Maybe on a beach somewhere...

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The Door is Open

I took this phrase from two sources:
the U2 song "Gloria", and my favorite Rumi poem:

"The Breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you
Don't go back to sleep
you must ask for what you really want
Don't go back to sleep
People are going back and forth
Across the doorway where the two worlds touch
The door is round, and open
Don't go back to sleep"

I have spent a fair amount of my life wide awake and dreaming, other times sleeping where my dreams were so vivid I wanted to go back and figure out how to make them real. How do I bring dreams into the waking world - dreams of creativity, of joy, of peace, of fun? How to take the shadow of my psyche and use it to heal myself and others instead of hurt?

I have eclectic taste - possibly insane taste - ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous. I like silly humor more than I like sarcasm. I have a lifelong interest in why the heck the world is the way it is... cause and effect? G/d/s? Quarks? Who knows. Even if I thought I knew, that would be faith. The intersection between faith and knowledge - a dangerous and blurry place.

As the Firesign Theater states ".... a force that can only be used for good... or evillllll..." but I don't remember what they were talking about, was it a time machine?

I'm blessed with brilliant and creative friends; you'll find links to their blogs, art and ideas here. I'll add my own art and interests as time permits. Daring to put ourselves out there is one of the greatest challenges many artists face. Creating is easy, sometimes it happens all by itself. Communicating... hard.