Wow, I find that first image very powerful. Let’s keep doing this!
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So I Just want say this thread is my:
Thank U For Participating & Playing in this Creative Space in/on Cyber Space…
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Michael, I love that quote about having a happy childhood. Definitely, for me it has been true.
I want to share some direct experience of my own. I am learning how to find historical figures who have a metaphor or omen to share with me, that reflects or illuminates my own life. When I lend an ear, they become spokespeople of the cosmos. I make use of my astrological background in this endeavor, and this has become an invaluable resource for exploring parts of myself and my life that are in need of attention.
You could say this is a lesson in art appreciation, and in seeing the cosmos as artist. Here’s an example of what I’m trying to describe:
Even though I had never heard of him, Charles Brockden Brown (1771-1810) is generally regarded by scholars as the most important American novelist before James Fenimore Cooper. After surveying a few brief online bios, I ended up reading a more substantial biography that was published in 1822, 12 years after his death. This is part of the work I do these days, studying biographies of historical figures. But first these figures must be found, and this is accomplished with the aid of astrological algorithms to find potential kindred spirits or parallel lives, based on one’s date of birth. I encountered Charles B. while studying my own birth.
Since childhood, Charles displayed a delicate constitution and a bookish, solitary nature. Perhaps he struggled with his restless talents, chafing at his own sense of familial duty that would one day lead him to study law. After completing law school, he turned his back on a profession that felt entirely wrong to him, to the disappointment of family and friends. But the strength of his calling to the writer’s path was enough to overcome his and others’ misgivings. His novels gained him recognition on both sides of the Atlantic. Tragically, he died of tuberculosis before reaching forty, but his legacy as the first substantial American novelist lives on. Brown’s novels are still topics of discussion and debate today.
We both were solitary sons who diverged from our expected paths, disappointed our parents, and followed our passions. His writing genre, now called American Gothic, tends toward the macabre – an early influence on Edgar Allen Poe – and suits the darker side of my imagination. He was a feminist and a Quaker; I am a feminist and a lapsed Buddhist. All of which is to say, some of my best friends are dead people, and I am happy to count Charles Brockden Brown among them.
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Yes reading the Dead can bring one into an Opening of Life less Burdened with the chains of the Present & Time Free as Gesber is I feel making a case for!
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What is the Difference that Makes a Difference with these Two Pictures ?Is there a Harmonious Whole with Pluralism Included not Excluded? What Actions Come from this Thought Experience of Difference that Makes a Difference?
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My question is-Where are these two pictures perceived from? I am outside the frame but have feelings about the non human characters within the frame. Where are those meta- feelings coming from? And where is the observer of those meta- feelings ? Does that observer/perceiver have a size or a shape? Where do we observe the observing observer from? And what does that observer/ perceiver want to have happen? Can we share intention and attention across the boundaries of self- other -species?
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Exactly!Does there have to Be a size or shape,or any Intention than Giving WholeHearted Attention to Experience.Maybe the From is not needed as the First Step,maybe I can say the From is a very soft intentional Pause,two Step Back,that’s all.
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These are my questions as well. It sure speaks to the whole ‘observer and observed cannot meaningfully be separated when sentient being is involved’ phenomenon.
I get that inexplicable jolt-feeling again when I perceive/infer the quiet power of the elephant: “I mean you no harm - but don’t think about messing with my little friends…”
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And a very soft intentional pause…and how soft is that very soft…does that very soft have an inside or an outside?
And two Step Back…and what happens afer two? What happens right between one Step Back and two Step Back?
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And perceive/infer…and ( / ) …and when ( / ) what happens right before( / )?
And what determines perceive/infer?
Forgive me if I ask questions that seem to be outside or beneath our well accepted patterns of detection…I am not trying to be annoying but to to zoom in…and then zoom out…and figure out what are these regions of our discourse that we hover around, avoid, evade, ignore…there may be some subtle information we need to give our attention to?
That’s why I get so enthusiastic about size and shape…questions about scale and scope are very important to give attention to.
We are mapmakers and we are performances of the territory we try to map. Language is our greatest tool to model with and is also our most intoxicating drug. We have to make some new maps, as current world events are demanding better reportage from more sophisticated kinds of perceivers.
Today it is announced that my favorite reading space, that I will not disclose, because it is a secret, is closing, due to the pandemic. All public performances are cancelling , lecture halls and auditoriums in this giant city are empty. Shelves at super markets are emptying. No one is eating out.
And what happens next? I will have to hunker down, at home, with plenty of supplies, and hope my internet connection is stable. We are in the midst of a great battlefield of mixed messages. How we differentiate perceive/infer is of immense practical importance. We are, perhaps, becoming experiments for many different kinds of patterning? Let’s continue to develop this instinct.
And that quiet power of the elephant…
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Inarticulate speech
Inarticulate speech of the heart
Inarticulate speech
Inarticulate speech of the heart
I’m a soul in wonder
(Ahahah)
I’m a soul in wonder
(Ahahah)
I’m a soul in wonder
(Ahahah)
I’m a soul in wonder
(Ahahah)
Inarticulate speech
Inarticulate speech of the heart
Inarticulate speech
Inarticulate speech of the heart
John I can appreciate your style of wanting more Clarity with your questions,I happen to not necessarily think of Clarity as synonymous with Transparency-although they seem to be Intermingled-twingled.
So I will do my best with the feeling that guided me in posting the pictures above.
One they are both Beast of Burden( & Political Party Symbols) within a natural environment & the colors are AWESOME even those of the animals.Along side these Beast of Burden are Birds which are of the Air & Ground in a co-existence.
And maybe from my Inarticulate Expression your questions of size & shape are Transparent & not Clear because that Tension is my Heart speaking & not my Mind(at least to a lesser degree).
These pictures came out of Opening my Heart to a inner need to Expression.These Times are touching into Individual & Collective Relational Existential WTF!!!
I am just unable or want to answer your questions sometimes,for me they distract from my personal Inarticulation that is important to honor.Again John I appreciate our shared Interest around these Matters.
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Please feel free to ignore, Michael, any of my questions. I value transparency as well and that is why I ask questions that are really real to me rather than just trot out what I already know the answer to. If the mood is not right or there is no sense of contact then that is fine, too. I have always considered you a supportive person and open to different kinds of inquiry. I appreciate the quality of your attention and your feedback. Thanks again.
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The actual elephant in the picture may or may not even be aware of his/her “passengers” but the angle suggested to me in the moment that s/he had admitted guests to sanctuary.
When I first saw the elephant I teared up a little. I was/am ferociously protective of my little brother. He didn’t always then and certainly doesn’t now need that from me, but I think he appreciated it from time to time. I think of my sons, no longer helpless creatures in my arms, yet still needing the little I have that I can give. Though this comes from a place within I gave up trying to fully explain, I’m sure it is quite common - ‘say whatever you want to me but be prepared to kill me if you threaten those close to me’.
Ah but what about the threat that kills you?
Or the one that kills them despite your best frenzied efforts?
And then…?
Or…?
What determined my perception/inference then and these reflections now I don’t rightly know.
I, too, feel like a skydiver sometimes, tumbling, with all that was solid melted into air.
But thank you for questions that explore. They are anything but annoying.
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And thank you for doing something so interesting with my questions. Yours is a surprising response. When I am surprised by a response to one of my odd questions I don’t feel so alone in the world.
Diaghilev, a great avaunt guard theatrical producer, was asked by his leading performer," What do you want from me?"
Diaghilev replied," Amaze me!"
Now that is an unfair thing to ask of anyone, especially, on command. It is an awful imposition. And yet, I know, underneath the surface of most persons there is a vast unexplored territory that we have no maps for. I try to approach that territory with the utmost care and respect. I am actually sometimes quite shy and reserved so I use technique to protect others from my curiosity.
I can understand that. I, too, am touched by this great intelligence. And teared up a little…and ferociously protective of little brother…
I, too, was protective of my little brother…
And comes from a place within I gave up trying to fully explain, I’m sure it is quite common…
And is there a relationship between that place within and the quiet power of the elephant?
You have given me much to ponder as I look at the pictures of these elegant animals, the innocent grace, and dignity…and I feel a little sad that we are so careless of these mysterious beings…
This may have something to do with the Second Order Culture we have been working so hard to prepare for. Maybe it is closer to us than we realize. Resonating with these pictures and putting the feelings into words creates a sense of a shared reality.
Reminds me a bit of that powerful dream you shared about rescuing the children. Thanks, TJ, for sharing these delicate self-reflections.
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And Birds are such complex creatures, I have a great affinity for them. A few months ago, at the museum, I saw this great sculpture that captured the Air energetic of these special beings. I notice in the photograph a couple of bird companions are perched upon the Elephant’s majestic head. I love these kinds of strange couplings between bird and beast, the otherness of others.
The Metropolitan Museum has closed it’s doors to the public. Now, in the midst of this pandemic, we need art more than ever, to sustain us through these dark days. I know that Grace Church ( where Herman Melville used to worship) will be open at noon and and offer an organ recital, a Bach recital. Bach will heal this sin sick soul. There are usually only a few persons sitting in the pews. The stained glass windows are wonderful. I have spent many afternoons gazing through the biblical figures in the glass mosaic, entering another kind of world.
A block above the Church is the Strand, which claims to be the largest used bookstore in the world. I visit the bookstore almost every day, as if it were a great cathedral. I sometimes don’t buy anything, walk away, think about a purchase, return and find the book is no longer there but something else has shown up that is perfect. The bookstore Angel is working for me.
Last night, the shelves at Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods were empty. Fearful customers sweep like locusts, devouring everything. I have enough food for a few days…lots of businesses are closing. It is at moments such as these that I am aware how much I depend upon the kindness of strangers.
My neighbor, whom I have lived next to for over thirty years, has left a note on my door. She is leaving town and asked me to take care of the plants that she has left on the fire escape that our apartments share. I take the two plants in doors for it is still too cold for them to be left outside. I find a place for them in my household. They are honored guests. I touch their leaves, whisper tender words of greeting. They love me in return.
I worry about my neighbor for she is an elder who has had some illness this season. She may have felt fearful of the city and has found a retreat somewhere until the pandemic subsides. She told me that we had lived through worse times. And that is true. Many of our dearest friends were swept away in the great plague of the eighties. So wise, so young…I trust that my neighbor finds a safe haven during this period of havoc.
In our small world networks, is it possible that we can lay down a new groove? I am open to that possibility although I do not insist upon it. All manner of thing shall be well, some great mystic once said, and when I am at my best ( which is not a constant) that is my basic orientation. This painfully bad news that is coming at us, from all directions, will re-organize our societies in ways which we can’t predict.
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Beautifully expressed John,I apply that image to another’s language ,since it is alive for me,there are degrees of aliveness.And your caution of not trotting out what You already know; is in my approach more of working with attuning to working with different kinds of questions,like Uhm? tell me more? Interesting,etc.
When opening/allowing your words land on/in my Body-Mind-Spirit,I to in similar-different ways have been with the :
And Feel the a degree of Difference that makes Difference within U from I,if only that we are in different Vibrationally land places (Power Spots)& Yet we are being Affected on-in a Planetary Vibrational Moment.
I notice that here in Riverside,Ca. the crisis is being experienced with a degree of less “closed in-ness” yet ,YES there-here.
A interesting difference in where I put my Attention in the pictures ; I attuned to The Beasts of Burden in both animals,Big & Small ,their felt weight-Gravity- as sentient beings & the weight put on them by?
The Birds felt as the ones giving comfort to the Mighty Elephant & Little Donkey for the Birds are not as limited by Gravity.
I too John am feeling the Gravity of this troubled time with U & feel Grateful for U & Everyone Else Here. And find my wanting to be less in the waters of the online world & with Care,Alertness & Engagement with the offline world with my physical family,friends,neighbors as a way to Follow the Birds in not being limited by the Gravity of the moment & Respect it’s ways.
To maybe not Fly like the Birds…To learn to Surf the Force of Gravity of this Troubled Time,this is my Aspiration-Vision-Practice:
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Though every image you post is a kind of self-portrait, I love this Portrait of you, standing by/beneath labyrinth(s), one of which appears to be of Sound flowering… as are you, in your elegant chapeau, wearing the face of a true Elder (ala our friend, Jenkinson).
PS: the date says Dec. 2018, which greatly confuses me since it arrived in my inbox today, 3/13/2020… 
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Your entire comment moves me, especially the part about your children, and how so much of life asks us to…be a skydiver. I was lucky enough once to dream of falling through the sky, no bottom in sight, after a moment of terror and confusion, I remembered to let myself fall without resisting, and receive the unknown outcome…
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