A bit of a rambler;-) that I wasn't going to post and then thought of no
reason why knot to.
Dear At, dear Fred and dear LO
I have news of May in the Gambia but I will save that for a while.
John Clare was a totally self educated countryman who taught himself
poetry. He is renowned in history as a true and important poet of the
English language. He ended up in the madhouse and these words I have
before me are in his spidery quill handwriting.
"Dear Sir,
I am in a Mad House and quite forget your name or who you are you must
excuse me for I have nothing to communicate or tell of and why I am shut
up I don't know. I have nothing to say so I (last word indecipherable),
Yours respectfully, John Clare."
"A life is a puzzle, it is not the solution one is after, it is the
unlayering of the depths of the puzzle so that mystery can be revealed, I
think of the Spanish verb, "recordar": to remember, to pass back through
the heart." Anon
I think what you experienced Fred, was similar in human nature attending
your tutor to that which At encountered inside the CEO of the company
(sic) he consulted with, it is a malady I find under many human surfaces.
It is called Anger. Maybe it is reflecting of something.. at the
realisation that societies in their many disguises are really disasters,
disasters of an increasing darkness (metaphorically) when they could be
more radiant with light;-) Our communities have maybe really just become
"-networks of domination and manipulation in which we can easily get
entangled-."
How strange if companies were really like what Thomas Merton noted in 'The
Wisdom of the Desert' where the Desert Fathers saw their bottom lining;-)
or (pocket lining more like;-) societies as "shipwrecks", where each had
to actively swim for his life, not "drift passively" on the "tenets" and
"values" of a near baseless society.
Must. "People must be motivated, youth must be entertained, money must be
raised, and above all, everyone must be happy." Ought. "We ought to be on
good terms with church and civil authorities, we ought to be liked or
respected by a majority, we ought to (be able to) move up in the ranks
according to schedule, we ought to have enough salary and a comfortable
life -"
Thus, " - we are busy people like all busy people, rewarded with the
rewards which are rewarded to busy people!" People are running on a mental
fuel of "social compulsions."
Who am I? "- I am the one who is liked, praised, admired, dislike, hated,
despised, whether pianist, businessman or minister, what matters is how I
am perceived by my world. If being busy is a good thing then I must be
busy, If having money is a sign of real freedom, then I must claim my
money, if knowing more people proves my importance, I will have to make
the necessary contacts." The 'compulsion' noted by Merton and Henri Nouwen
alike above becomes a self perpetuating humanly degrading and
strangulating loop, the inference being that fear manifests as perception
of future failure with the generation of a counter-need that is to prevent
failure at all costs, so more of the same -- more work, more money, more
friends. Greed and anger are the unholy (fragmenting) brother and sister
of a 'false self' fabricated by socializing compulsions in an unredeemed
world. "Oh no, not us!" " They are angry at their leaders for not leading
and at their followers for not following. They are angry with those who do
not come to church and angry with those who do come for coming without
enthusiasm. They are angry with families, who make them feel guilty and
angry with themselves for not being who they want to be. This is not open,
blatant, roaring anger, but anger hidden behind the smooth word, the
smiling face and the polite handshake. It is a frozen anger, and anger
which settles into a bitter resentment and slowly paralyzes a bitter
heart." But that was twenty years ago and we are now;-)
Thank you to those who have so far asked the children what we have been
doing wrong and what we might do to put it right. Ninety-six to go! I
think I can safely say my brushes are not going to get wet on this
occasion;-) Which begs a question inside me. If this LO community with a
readership of about several thousand cannot summon such an energy resource
I am beginning to question what and whether I want to continue to
become/be here. AND I fully appreciate it constitutes no big deal to
ninety nine point nine per cent of the readership and authorship this LO
constitutes.
I am willing to make a prediction on the basis of a tiny sample
patterning. I think many, many children would want to bring our attention
to the qualities of fire ;-) water ;-) earth ;-) and air ;-) ..that is
ALL;-(
I believe with all my heart that small children as yet uncorrupted by you
and I in our institutions converse in ways that few other than people like
At de lange and Peter Beamish can yet conceive. I believe that in their
minds sits a great powerful salvation. I believe it is the powers of Fine
Arts to release that power and energy into the world we inhabit and
destroy almost daily.
I am asking you all to wake up!
I think you are all become quite mad in many ways so complex that you'll
never get to the foundational bottom of it with all this clever
thinking;-) St. Anthony was asked in the desert about Mastery. This is
verbatim what he said, "A time is coming when men will go mad, and when
they see someone who is not mad, they will attack him saying, ' You are
mad, you are not like us." The children have not yet fragmented their
compassion for the whole world.
There is still time.
There is only still time.
I read this and am changing my mind.
"-It takes a great effort and struggle in prayer to reach that state of
mind which is freedom from all disturbances; it is a heaven within the
heart, literally endocardial, the place where Christ dwells in us."
May has built a compound and mothers are starting to bring their children
to her and they are 'giving' their children to her.
NO-ONE in two years here questioned "How is May's learning progressing?"
And for you and your children and me she risks her very life. What are we
doing then that is really so important?
"The stabilizing effect of symmetrizing the histories has been exploited
to a still more powerful effect ---paint is smeared, slopped, scratched
and scored into the canvas giving it an unfinished, untidy and
deliberately filthy appearance -- Nevertheless, de Kooning's powerful
sense of compositional symmetry, learned from extensive studies of
classical art, gives the very accidental features of his painting a non
accidentality, of permanence, and enduring strength. For example, by
symmetrically organizing 'accidental' marks that he has used in the
smeared, untidy portrait of a woman, the portrait assumes a powerful sense
of eternity, a monumentality, equal to a woman painted for example by ----
" (M. Leyton, Rutgers)
"Andrew, experience, especially in childhood (literally) sculpts the
brain." Daniel Goleman;-)
Why so complicated Eh?
Love,
Andrew
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