Fly-Fishing

Thanks, Serena for this up lifting story. And yes Spring is coming. Our Snow Drops have the advantage of no plowing but they were transplanted from a place of great neglect some years ago. Such strong wills they have. Thanks again

Day Corporate Suits may have a different meaning than it did pre-2000. Think of “the company man” ideal of the 1950’s or the Pre-911 Wall Street trading floors with suit clad folk shouting and running about over small pieces of white paper. The character that defines this model of post WW working life persists, however the Silicon age, the societal shift from proper, formal decorum to casual, and now the COVID-era work in your pajamas from your bedroom and maybe brush your hair has steered the expression into different channels. Miriam Webster defines the word corporate as “having qualities (such as commercialism or lack of originality) associated with large corporations or attributed to their influence or control” or when distilled down to its essential meaning, “of, relating to, or formed into a controlled unified body of individuals”. When distilled further the crux of the meaning arrives at a crossroad. A reframe of Day 5’s title could be Ditch the Unified Group. Walk towards your inner directive. Self-create. Draw out of self an independent direction.

The freedom to self-direct, to unfetter oneself from unified corporation, to remove a socially imposed mask and open to the possibilities that rise out of inner prompting is a noble freedom. This is a courageous path that I have idealized from a young age, and for a complex of reasons have been unable to manifest in the passing iterations of my day-to-day life.

This, in my opinion, is closer to the most refined understanding of freedom; a word that has been recently under conspicuous attack by citizen in-corporation that co-opts the word freedom for its own unified objective underpinned with a cloaked intent for control; such as to assert the individual ‘freedom’ to shove cameras in unwitting persons’ faces without respecting the other separate individual the freedom to consent; or to not mask during a global pandemic because of asocial, political ‘freedom’ to infect others at will with a deadly if not long-term debilitating disease. AND to legalize doctrinal ideology that eliminates free choice of intimate personal decisions, decisions that that reside only within the sacred chamber where God’s given grace of free will is in relational conversation with a human heart. Really, what this ‘freedom’ may be is some contorted sub-genre of unified corporate-suitism, (ranting a bit, but cathartic to say the least).

A sterile sameness portrays the corporate suit – corporate lawn, corporate car, corporate landscape. In colorful contrast walking the multi-faceted, thought filled, life giving and life growing individual path opens the door of possibility to a world filled with curiosity, exploration, reflection, surprise and delight. While composing this last sentence I saw myself holding a large willow basket and placing in it every variety of my favorite fruits perfect in their ripeness. Yum!

Now one could argue this does not mean that those wearing a corporate suit cannot carry their own basket. In fact, I am quite sure we each are born with one. Plenty of examples exist of individuals within the corporation container who go home, put their own clothing back on and follow their own music score. It is possible, I know, to memorize poetry while watching test tubes simmer. We know stories of those who would write by candlelight in the darkness of night. But what Serena addresses on Day 5 is the arrival at a crossroad where you meet a scarecrow pointing in two directions. The road laid in the north to south direction is one that follows the status quo and the road in the east to west direction is where one will travel with the independent imagination. In choosing this latter direction one jumps ‘full Monty’ into the sea, sloshes past voices of reason, swims through the sting of survival instinct to at last reach a place of self-navigation (notice the absence of the words still waters).

I will forever admire the trailblazers, transformers and creators that traverse unchartered territory every day. Honor to those who have wandered along a path not corporately remembered, but who have left behind them quiet wakes from their making, which are ultimately knit into a quilt of collective memory at a scale that no one person alone would ever be able to grasp. Hail to those of us who set our sights on travelling our own landscape, but for a complex of reasons could not. Thank you to all who have tried. Keep on keeping on & Don’t Stop Believin’. Journey to the fare-thee-well.

The old idiom, ‘Curiosity Killed the Cat’ has two terrible flaws. The statement conflates the story of a cat who runs into trouble with a body of water because of some kind of misadventure that put the creature in the path of harm. Oh dear, that may have been an Aesop story of a dog with a bone who saw a dog in the water with a bone. The dry dog wanted the wet dogs bone. He jumped in and realized there was no wet dog with a bone and so jumped out again quite dispirited that he was now wet and there was no extra bone to gnaw on. The dog completely overlooked the fact that it might nearly have drowned for nothing. Thinking in this vein it was Narcissus that came to a terrible end by looking into a pool of water. Of course he was set up by Nemesis who wanted to teach him not to spurn a woman – in this case Echo. Echo unfortunately put all she had into a single stupid guy to the point of wasting away, a shortcoming of many of us girls. Luckily most of us get over this potentially fatal flaw and become more like Nemesis. So just to put a tail on this, Narcissus fell in love with his own image (the dolt) and once he realized it was just an image and his love would forever be unrequited he cast himself into the water and drowned, presumably. Let’s try again. The old idiom, ‘Curiosity Killed the Cat’ has ONE terrible flaw. It is an incomplete account. (That’s not the flaw.) The full saying is,” Curiosity killed the Cat; but satisfaction brought it back.” That is more to my liking as it pairs well with the well established fact that cats have 9-lives. (I still see the cat falling into the water.) Moving on, the flaw is that the first part of the saying is a warning not to get your nose into other peoples’ business, but the original idiom communicates that despite the risks our curiosity may guide us to the fulfillment of a quest-ion. The common expression is pretty watered down right? Furthermore this saying is NOT the original. The saying morphed from “care killed the cat”, which refers more to worry than meddling. If curious look it up. You will find a fine statement about courage. Of course none of this has anything to do with creative curiosity, except maybe the courage part – and the risk part. But seriously now, let’s pause here at this intersection where curiosity and observation cross paths. This is where I think Serena Kovalosky is taking us, on an odyssey of creative exploration that leads us into the guilty pleasure of touching below the surface of things. I think I shall go swimming. Wanna come?

‘As I learned to work through them over the years, I found they often become magnificent doorways to something I’ve never tried before, leading me to fascinating discoveries and truly unique work. If I’m not making “mistakes” once in a while, I’m playing it too “safe.’ Mistake Making can be both joyful and freeing. Improvisation is an example. To improve is not to have a polished end, it s the process of exploring patterns and combinations that one may have never tried before. Isn’t it so part of the living force to explore, to relish surprises. One PBS program some time ago presented how a Japanese student worked on a math problem that was hard for him. As the student stood at a blackboard and struggled his classmates cheered him on and the teacher encouraged and praised his mistakes, this went on until he got it right. This was an inspiring story to me. The experience of failure, is it not tied to social conditioning? During my elementary school experience I felt such shame when I made mistakes. It was important to achieve, excel etc. Learning process has changed some since the ’70’s. Here is a fairly recent article https://www.pbs.org/…/its-okay-to-make-mistakes-how… I find the message here quite inspiring and I think applicable to creative pursuits. Mistake begins with the letter “M” -like MMMagic!!!🎩

A really good read. A tapestry of art, growing, life, nature, wonder what if

Thanks

Greetings, Serena I am sitting in my art studio, looking out at Bellingham Bay with sunshine slowiy awakening our day. I have spent the past 5-6 weeks, nursing a bonchitis or (whatever It was). During, this time, of solitude, it has given me a chance, to contemplate the quiet and changes I and, everyone have been thrust into. I’ve always loved my alone time. While, I have not picked up my paint brush, as I had thought I would, i have enjoyed, a since of calm. I’ve taken an online course called ‘Art2Life’. Nicholas lost everything during the 80’s recession. He recreated ‘Art2Life’ from scratch. I have thought of other artist’s such as my hairdresser, Mila Faulkner. She has delved into her painting with gusto and also her gardening. I believe out of this crisis, there will be amazing works of art created. Authors will be writing remarkable novels. There will be films made. There has been a remarkable community of citizens, who have stepped up to the plate, mask makers, neighborhood helpers, and lots of students who have made videos, to reach out to their peers. Teachers have learned to teach online, students are learning what it is to dive in and do what they need to do, for their and our future. The amazing creativity, that I see already, is what artists, makers, and futuristic thinkers naturally do. The challenges that you and other artists seem daunting, but, I see artists having amazing strength to forge ahead. That’s what they do. New art, new dreams, new re-creating is in your dreams and genes. Sending lots of positive from the West Coast to you. Susan