29 April, 2009

Curriculum of compassion

In Japan they stress conformity with almost a pathological strictness; they have a saying "the nail that stands out will be hammered down". In the animal world, predators look for the standout weakling - the old, the young, the lame or sick - to cull. But we are evolving beyond our animal nature and it is the "different" people - the smart, the compassionate, the gentle, the dreamer - who will save us from ourselves. Being warriors, grunts and conformists has served us reasonably well for several million years, but now we're strong enough and big enough to have fouled our own nest. Humanity ain't gonna fly unless we start acting with clear, rational thought, not herd mentality. This means that the nonconformists - the meek - shall indeed inherit the earth. We can start by giving them the respect they deserve, and teaching our children it's wrong to bully those who are different.

I'm weird and I'm proud. Get used to it.

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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.