Monday, May 17, 2010
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Last Night's Wedding
Forces join, wondering how
they could ever
be separate.
Families join, once not knowing
each other,
and now,
not knowing how
they could have not.
The passed elder says,
three things are important—
health, happiness, and
long life.
All guaranteed to be
curtailed, someday,
but for now,
for yesterday, and today,
we have all three,
many times over.
For today, over and
over and over again.
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Friday, May 14, 2010
I'd really get angry if that happened to me.
(L to R: Gary Libman (brother-in-law), Rev. Kyle, Gail Libman (my sister))
I heard that a lot today. Not major events, but minor things. We buy a car and we are happy when it works and swear bloody murder when it breaks. So, basically, we break when the car does. How often did I want to say, it is just an opportunity to practice? But that feels quite dispassionate, doesn't it?
I was wiped out today by the National Civil Rights Museum where MLK was shot. To make the experience really amazing we ran into Rev. Kyles who was with MLK when it happened and was able to be a witness and speak of the event. Man's inhumanity to other men is more than I can take. One of the holocausts that takes place on our soil.
I asked Rev. Kyles if we've made things better. "Yes," he said. "There is no question about it. And we have much farther to go." An opportunity for me to "practice!"
Thursday, May 13, 2010
The Biggest Problem Artists Face
It is quite a feat to knock your head against the wall of your studio day after day, wondering what will emerge (besides a flat head). But the focus has to be on the knocking, not on what emerges.
Artists use lots of excuses to stay away from their studio. Sometimes I remind myself that Sartre, the existential philosopher, wrote his best stuff after working 70+ hours a week as a journalist. There are stories and stories about artists with little time who had a steady art practice.
The secret is to go tomorrow to the studio, and not to worry about the results. Chance says that good things will come from time to time. Faith can help one believe that, if you must have good things. But imagine if you just made less bad things. Or maybe dispense entirely of good and bad and just think about Blake's "practice is art." Isn't that enough? Harry Callahan, the legendary photographer, had a dry spell for ten years late in life. Every morning he'd go out and take pictures. Then he'd come back and develop his film, eat lunch, and then print. Nothing worked. But after ten years of this, good stuff started to happen.
In the end we'll all have plenty of time to sleep. Until then, wake up and see what comes out as you beat your head against the wall.
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