Replying to LO28502 --
Dear At and LO
> "It is the image of humanity emerged in potential thought
> that I find revelaling for the problems of our day."
> He then adds that this image
> "... offers each of us the chance of creative originality ..."
> This is the clue to the foundation of the seven pillars.
I am sure Rick will not mind if I disclose one of the questions he asked me,
in my tiny room in which we had specially lit a fire for him that morning. It
was, had I ever met Michael Polanyi when I was at Merton College, Oxford in
the late seventies. I had not. Rick alone will smile when I say, it is
because I was too far down the scale of 'things'. Rick knows the wisdom of my
lie. The wisdom of my truth in my life as a result of my experience is that
had I met with Michael Polanyi on the proper terms of 'fellow artists' even
at fourteen years old he would have treated with as his equal. This quality I
have found a kind of 'litmus test' in my life. It is a 'quality' as you would
say At, as rare as hen's teeth.
I once worked for a few days with someone who liked to present a facade, the
facade was considerable and would baulk most people. But facades are just
that, facades. Like copies of paintings are just that, or even a bad van Gogh
painting by his own admission is just that, a facade. So, for example At, if
someone presents themselves to me as someone who dialogues with, in this case
'the Prince of Wales', and tells they have as a primary function the
preparation of 'princes in waiting' I see a facade appear before me. I see
someone who needs, nay ;-) craves influence. But what a shallow influence
with which to serve this emergent age. I was at Merton working as a servant
so that I could afford to buy the things I wanted. When I couldn't buy what I
needed, say sable brushes and artist quality watercolours I would steal them.
Yes I would steal them. In fact I can say that I used to steal them from the
bottom floor of a then famous book cum art supplies store in Oxford. Andrew
Campbell, thief and servant. Indeed so. The name of the bookshop was
MAXWELLS. It was owned by Robert Maxwell. Bob, to his friends;-) was once a
man of courage and honour from humble beginnings who became so corrupt that
like all the little princes in the City of London, and New York
and..and..and...he effectively stole from the poor to give to the rich,
mainly himself. In Oxford there are many little old people living in cold
damp rooms because Bob Maxwell stole their pension funds. I think Captain Bob
is well enough known for me not to have to elaborate. It may be some perverse
thing that Andrew Campbell, mere 'servant' was one of the few people ever to
steal something from that particular crook.
Now, I fondly imagine that if I had met Michael Polanyi at Merton and I
had said to him who I was and not what I was, what I wanted to become and
not what I had been or what I was then he would have left the 'high table'
and he would have helped me get my cycle down from the tree where the
'clever students' had put it.
Gradually, here and elsewhere I will become more and more the person I am
with the 'collective per-mission' and Rick's wise and occasional prunings.
I have begun to think, perhaps like you At, that 'miracles' are 'become
possible'. I think thinking is a kind of miracle. I think I and many here,
if not all, have almost as Bohm says it so much better, have lost the
capacity for real thinking. That is something I believe artpractice as
states of love can do. I have also realised that i have to create new
spaces for these miracles to appear. I think you will help me create those
space. I think there are others here and beyond who will help. Today is a
good day to ask if you will help me create some new spaces for the
miracles of new thinking? I will also take today as an opportunity to ask
publicly for others to assent to the possibility that Polanyi held out.
Let's inaugurate a new age of miracles then At... what else is there to
do? I am, we are to build a house of calm. Where shall we begin. I propose
it is in our hearts and we can work out from that centre drawn by our
minds. I need some peace so I am going to desist from writing here for as
long as it takes to find a foundational stone.
Love,
Andrew
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