Shadow and Substance [David’s blog on Two Artists Tuesday]

“Even in the valley of the shadow of death, two and two do not make six.” ~ Leo Tolstoy

When I am stuck or empty of thought, when I do not know what to write about, I sometimes jump into quotes to get me moving. The quote is like a pebble that starts an avalanche. This quote assures me that there is sense to be made, that there are universal rules that apply to all. We are born. We all die. Gravity keeps our feet on the ground even though the ground is a ball spinning through space. Two and two make four, even if the current occupant of the White House insists that it is six.

“A false friend and a shadow attend only while the sun shines.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

I have a theory about maga republicans. They are false friends, keeping close to their dear-leader as long as the sun shines. Sundown is coming, if not already here. They are already fading. Some have stopped attending but they have already rendered themselves as substance-free, nothing more than shadow. The question becomes, “Will we believe them when they claim to be thought-full, 3 dimensional, independent, caring and well-intended representatives of their constituents?” I hope not. I hope we-the-people have more substance than that, a higher expectation of the people who are meant to represent us.

“There is no easy walk to freedom anywhere, and many of us will have to pass through the valley of the shadow of death again and again before we reach the mountaintop of our desires.” ~ Nelson Mandela


There is a dial called “If they gain, we lose,” that the wealthy twist every time this nation actually approaches equality. It’s a very old dial, installed at our nation’s inception. It has been extremely useful for protecting privilege when the greater rabble question the inequities in a nation purportedly based on the ideals of equality and freedom-and-justice-for-all. The current lot have been cranking the dial. Despite their fears and repeated efforts to divide us, to demolish democracy and enrich their holdings, the mountaintop of our desires remains. Perhaps this will be our last pass through the valley? Perhaps we will finally be willing and able to disconnect the dial, erase the concocted divisions and, together, reach the mountaintop?

“Beware that you do not lose the substance by grasping at the shadow.” ~ Aesop

Growing older, stacking experiences, is a great teacher of shadow versus substance. Our nation has just passed its 250th year though it seems locked in a cycle of shadow-grabbing. Separating substance from shadow is a skill that comes from an honest review of history. The good, the bad, and the ugly – all of it – is necessary for clarifying what matters and what does not. Is a ballroom essential while the people starve? Is a president profiteering from his office an official duty that betters the community and advances our society? It begs two related questions: How long are we will to pretend that shadow is substance? How long can we enable shadow-grasping before we lose our national substance, before we become nothing more than a shadow?

“When virtue is lost, benevolence appears, when benevolence is lost right conduct appears, when right conduct is lost, expedience appears. Expediency is the mere shadow of right and truth; it is the beginning of disorder.” ~ Lao Tzu

A pebble starts an avalanche.

read Kerri’s blogpost about THE SHADOW

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The Basic Action [David’s blog on Merely A Thought Monday]

“In a democracy, dissent is an act of faith.” ~ J. William Fulbright

Are you as confused as I am that people in a democracy choose not to vote? How is it possible to believe that your vote does not matter? That is the equivalent of saying to yourself, “I have no voice.” Or, it is an embrace of root rot, to uphold the victim-belief that the democracy is already gone and the act of voting is a sham.

To this day I am gobsmacked that in our last election more people decided not to vote than those who voted for either candidate. In one of the closest presidential races in our history, a race that was by all accounts the most important in our lifetime, 90 million Americans stayed home. 90 million people chose voicelessness. 90 million people thought that their voice did not matter.

Surrounded by the wreckage of our system, demolished over the past two years by an authoritarian regime, I challenge anyone to convince me that their vote did not count, that their voice does not count. In this case, silence is not dissent. It was surrender. Going forward, silence is conformity.

And here we are again only this time – this time – is not only the most important vote of our lives, it may be the most important vote in the life of our democracy. We are voting to fight for the life of government of, by and for the people – or to pull the plug and let it die.

Each day I read appeals to get out the vote – essentially an appeal to convince people in a democracy under siege – that they have a voice, that their voice matters. Given the utter corruption, the selling-out of the people to enrich the privileged few, it confuses me.

Standing in the rubble – and the wave of devastation of social safety net still-to-come thanks to the Big Ugly Bill, another forever war, The Epstein Class cover-up…I wonder why anyone would need convincing to speak up.

A vote is either an act of approval or it is an act of dissent. It is the fundamental, the basic action defining our system: the people have the power to choose their path by voting to stay the course or to change it. It is an enormous power and with power comes responsibility. In our government, it is sometimes hard to remember that we have the power – by design. Our democracy can only collapse if we allow it to happen.

The ongoing all-out-assault on our right to vote, waged by the president and his feckless party, is meant to render us voiceless. It is a power grab. They would squeeze us into conformity and if they succeed, the 90 million will have proven themselves as authoritarian-first-adapters, selecting voicelessness en route to a rotten system, modeling itself on Putin’s Russia or Orbán’s Hungary, a system of control that relies on a complacent and silent citizenry.

We have the opportunity, perhaps our last, to dissent. To speak. To uphold our responsibility. To vote.

“Has there ever been a society which has died of dissent? Several have died of conformity in our lifetime.” ~ Jacob Brownoski


read Kerri’s blogpost about DISSENT

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Just A Few Feet [David’s blog on KS Friday]

Lessons from the garden, vol. 1, episode 11. Title: Every Plant Has It’s Place.

When you buy a plant the little tag stuck into the soil offers location advice and watering preferences. Sun part shade. Full sun. Keep soil damp. Water only when soil is dry. And, as helpful as the information is, it is generic at best. I’ve learned that plants are like people: thriving is based on individual preference. Not all sun-part-shade locations are the same.

For instance, we have a pot of Impatiens that was in the perfect spot according to its tag. 48 hours after coming home with us it was sad indeed. We moved it 3 feet to the left to a spot where it would have 6 more minutes of shade each day and a better view of the tomatoes and it boomed. It sings arias. It is a boastful Impatiens daily testing the limitations of its pot. Such a small change for such a mighty response.

I’ve already reported about moving of the very-depressed-sweet-potato-vine from the ladder to Barney-the-piano and how it perked up immediately. Last season the sweet potato vine adored the ladder but this sad character was not happy with its locale. The move to Barney was balm to its Gilead. The amount of sun-to-shade is the same, the amount of water has not changed. Only the view is different. And, I suppose, it sits on top of Barney’s lid as opposed to being suspended from a rung. Perhaps, like me, this sweet potato vine was afraid of heights? No matter. Now it is happy and wrapping Barney in vines of sweet potato love.

The sweet potato vine move left an empty space on the ladder. It was late in the season and we found an almost dying fern at the nursery. Half price. They wanted to sell it before it was in full demise. We brought it home, used shower curtain hooks to suspend it from the ladder. Attended to its obvious need and the next day it was radiant. It simply needed a new location called “home” and a bit of personal attention.

I learned the same lesson when I was working with the schools. Not all kids are desk-sitters. Kinesthetic kids need the freedom to move or to run a lesson through their fingers. For them, a desk is despair. Simply standing up and stretching their limbs transformed frustration into happy exploration.

I learned the same lesson in the theatre. The best stagemangers I worked with were previously unhappy actors. A simple move a few feet across an imaginary line made all the difference. Plus, they learned early in their new location/identity that the snacks are much better at the tech table.

Like their human counterparts, every plant has its place. The solution to the droop need not be dramatic or complicated. Thriving might be just a few feet away.

NURTURE ME on the album RELEASED FROM THE HEART © 1995 Kerri Sherwood

Kerri’s albums are available on iTunes and streaming on Pandora

read Kerri’s blogpost about THE FERN

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Amazing Shapeshifter [David’s blog on DR Thursday]

Corking: white linear scars that indicate sweeter, fully ripe pepper with good flavor

To me, corking is a term exclusive to wine bottles. It comes at the moment when, sadly, you decide that one glass is enough. And then, recently, I found myself at a farm stand gaping at the beautiful markings on a basket of jalapeno peppers. “What is that?” I asked, pointing at the peppers.

“Corking.” While nature is a crazy good designer, people have a genuinely hard time creating words to express the beautiful.

In times gone by, “corking” meant “wonderful” or “splendid”. In a past century I might have written, “Nature is a corking good designer.”

Corking precedes “rad” by a few generations but means the same thing. Today you might hear “slaps” or “fire”. Language is an amazing shapeshifter. I’d have completely misunderstood a Gen Z-er, admiring the basket of corking peppers, who said, “Those peppers are fire!”

Do you remember when “bad” meant “good”?

Sometimes I think it is a miracle that we can communicate at all.

When I was young my grandparents used the phrase, “She’s a corker!” It meant “very funny”. We boomers might say, “She’s a riot!”

I bumbled upon this quote from a 16th century French writer, Michel de Montaigne, and thought it more relevant today than when he wrote it: “The greater part of the world’s troubles are due to questions of grammar.”

We currently communicate by text. Condensing our grammar inflates our troubles. We somehow believe language efficiency produces effective communication. We have eliminated time for complexity. We live sound byte to sound byte.

We are learning that governance by text is an especially dubious affair. Efficient word count is provocative but certainly less-than-effective.

These days I might text, “The world is on fire!” and a Gen Z-er might misunderstand me completely. They’d understand the opposite of what I intended. For me, the “world is on fire” does not mean that it is rad or the bomb or slaps. It is definitely not corking.

***

Bonus Snark Addition: We consistently invent new words for old concepts so the mistakes of the past seem like new territory. Perhaps this is why history repeats itself? Today, instead of “Schutzstaffel” (condensed into SS), we say ICE. Instead of Nazi Party, we say MAGA Republican. Different words, same meaning. Neither is corking.

read Kerri’s blogpost about CORKING

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Full Stop [David’s blog on Not So Flawed Wednesday]

“All colors are friends of their neighbors and lovers of their opposites.” ~ Marc Chagall

I was awake last night. As I stared at the ceiling I wondered if, after a lifetime of painting, I knew the first thing about color. Or brushes. Or surfaces. I wondered if I am shedding knowledge or never really gained it in the first place. I supposed that it probably does not matter either way as long as my eyes are open and I appreciate what I see.

Whether or not any knowledge sticks misses the point. Staring into the dark I managed to parse the difference between curiosity and information-gathering. I am and always have been a teflon-studier, a miserable retainer of detail. I like to roll up my sleeves and “see what happens”. I suppose I’ve made it a practice to regularly challenge what I think I know…

Staring into the dark I managed to laugh at the river of dross that regularly runs through my mind. It’s a wonder I can sleep at all.

The coneflowers nearly knocked me over. The orange with red against the green was so vibrant I almost had to look away. I like going to the garden center. Flowers are great teachers of color. So are walks in the woods. The garden center is a festival of color saturation while the woods are more of a quiet prayer.

I keep close at hand a National Geographic article about the color of human skin. We do ourselves a disservice to reduce each other to black-and-white. We are a full spectrum of color, glorious in the range of tint-to-shade. We could learn much from Marc Chagall’s observation of the color wheel. Rather than use our skin color to divide-and-conquer, to caste ourselves, to foment blather like eugenics and supremacy, we might open our eyes and see: “All colors are friends of their neighbors and lovers of their opposites.”

Together we are glorious. Separate we are without reference; flat and bland.

Full stop.

read Kerri’s blogpost about CONEFLOWERS

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Something More [David’s blog on Two Artists Tuesday]

A silver lining to the cyclospora, eColi, salmonella…currently running amok in our nation’s-now-unregulated-and-oversight-free food supply, we’re buying our produce from local farms. Not at the local farmer’s market but directly from the farm. It’s something we’ve talked about doing for years and the daily dose of recalls finally gave us the shove we needed to buy-and-eat local.

In addition to the obvious health benefits, I can safely say that I am learning anew how food is supposed to taste. What I thought was a tasty tomato, arriving on the grocery store shelf after a two week journey from the field, cannot compare to the tomato picked this morning, still sporting the sun and dirt from the field just-over-there. We’ve eaten more tomatoes in the past two weeks than in the past several months. And then there are the sweet peppers. And the cucumbers and zucchini. I’ve learned about Brussels sprout toppers and Delicata squash. Later this week I am planning to stuff and bake a Poblano pepper, something I would not have considered had I not been utterly captivated by the basket of gorgeous peppers.

And then there is Cheri and Chloe. The farmer and her niece. We now know the people growing the food we are eating and we like them. They are generous and kind. And funny. They are proud of the food they grow. They protect it and, therefore, they are protecting me. They welcome all of our questions and meet our curiosity with recipes. Holding aloft what I thought was a tiny squash, Cheri pulled a small knife from her pocket and sliced it, proclaiming, “That’s the best cucumber you’ll ever eat.” And it was.

There’s something more. The people shopping to the stand actually talk to each other. Easily. They tell stories. They offer recommendations. They do not pretend that they do not hear or see you. I find that intensely nourishing.

Climbing back into the truck with our sack of fingerling potatoes, squash, cucumbers, eggplant and peppers – our third trip to the farm in less than two weeks – flush with laughter and advice from the farmer and people-no-longer-strangers, we looked at each other and asked, “What took us so long?”

read Kerri’s blogpost about THE FARM STAND

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Take Heart [David’s blog on Merely A Thought Monday]

Young Arthur pulled a sword from a stone. He was a boy and his feat was something none of the strong men could achieve. He didn’t know it was an impossible task. His brother needed a sword; he saw one and he pulled it from the rock. An act of generosity. It was the sign: this boy had the character and destiny to be king.

I’ve read that long ago people believed the heart was the seat of the soul. It was thought to be good luck or a positive omen to find a heart shape in rock. A sign of love-on-the-way or an impending soul connection. A symbol that, even when darkness reigned, anything was possible. Light was available. In our home it is still considered good luck to find a heart shaped rock or a heart shape in a rock. We see them everywhere.

A heart-shaped stone is much different than a heart-made-of-stone. A heart of stone implies a lack of empathy. Indifference and/or cruelty.

In this time of spiraling chaos, when madness and sadism hold the reins and those in power gleefully sell the greater good for personal gain, I am daily struck by the wisdom of our guiding stories. The symbols and stories that give us guiding light to follow are available. A score of brutes tried unsuccessfully to pull the sword from the stone. They knew that the person who pulled the sword from the stone would become king. They wanted power. Arthur had no idea or thought of personal gain.. He was a scrawny kid, a squire with a good heart. The sword in the stone was a way for him to possibly help his brother. His pure heart made him king.

I stared at the heart, nature’s etching in the stone. I closed my eyes and hoped that it was, indeed, a sign. Purer hearts are coming. Soon a squire will step forward and with a heart of generosity, he or she will pull the sword from the stone.

“Take heart,” I thought, as Kerri took a photo, “Soul is on the way.”

read Kerri’s blogpost about THE HEART STONE

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There’s Hope [David’s blog on KS Friday]

25 years ago a friend called and told me to turn on my television. Like the rest of the nation, I sat in disbelief for hours, glued to the screen, watching the terror unfold in NYC, at the Pentagon, in a field in Pennsylvania. In many ways I’m still trying to wrap my mind around what I witnessed; people leaping into space, the towers collapsing.

I remember it like it was yesterday. This morning, the moment that haunts me, a moment that haunts me every September 11th, is the moment I turned off the television. The early morning existed in a “before”. I found myself standing in an “after” and I knew that this world, this “after” would be more devastating than I or we imagined. The lid had popped off of Pandora’s box.

There is a direct line from that day to this. Playing on our wound, the nation has now twice elected a xenophobe, a unapologetic racist and misogynist who wants us to see enemies everywhere, exploits the fear of “outsiders” while promoting a fanatical isolationism and stoking our ugliest impulses. He thrives on our division. He’s managed to turn our fear on each other. We need not fear foreign terrorists since we are passionately destroying ourselves. He – and his party – feed our anxiety so they might feed on our angst. They profit mightily from our discord.

They are no different than the men who flew airplanes into our twin towers. That is not hyperbole: they intend to bring down the nation. They work to make the tower of democracy collapse. They corrupt and dismantle our Constitution. They rob the poorest to profit the wealthiest. They spew misinformation and spin propaganda to keep us distracted while they destroy our system of checks and balances. They would have us become a an autocracy or worse, an extremist Christian theocracy.

My other memory from the initial days following 9/11 are of people coming together. A memorial spontaneously appeared at The Seattle Center. People checked in with their neighbors. People checked in with strangers on the street. For a moment we existed in a unified story. We came together. The assault on our nation brought forward our humanity. We cared for the well-being of others.

That is my pie-in-the-sky hope for what happens when the horror of this administration crumbles. We see each other again. We stop each other on the street and ask, “Are you okay?” We prosecute and hold accountable all those who assaulted our system, who betrayed their oath to the Constitution, who robbed from the poor and gave to the rich. We return to our humanity and our senses.

As the story goes, after all the ills were released on the world, only Hope remained in Pandora’s box. Hope: wanting something good to happen and – more than wanting – expecting that it will happen.

There will be an “after” to this era. Change is the only constant. Maybe, just maybe, the “after” that follows this “before” will be more restorative, more healing and constructive than we – or I – can imagine. Maybe a return to our senses will bring revival of our humanity, recovery of our moral compass, rejuvenation of our spirit of generosity.

More than want it, I expect that it will be so. There’s Hope.

(do yourself a favor on this 9/11 and give yourself 3 minutes to rest and breathe-in Kerri’s HOPE)

Kerri’s albums are available on iTunes and streaming on Pandora

read Kerri’s blog post about THE FULL MOON

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A Shape In Nature [David’s blog on DR Thursday]

Staring at the tree in silhouette against the sunset I was struck how much of our written language is pulled from shapes in nature. the runes and glyphs en route to alphabets. A sound associated with a mark on paper. Black ink on white fiber.

For some reason this silhouette brought me to ensō, the Japanese art of ink circles. An open or incomplete circle symbolizes impermanence, the beauty of imperfection. Wabi-sabi. The beauty found in life as it is, not as we want it to be.

Impermanence is a theme of our conversations this week. We walk through the park at sunset and talk about the transitory in ever widening circles of experience, beginning with our own lives, moving out to the government and reaching further to the climate. Nothing is fixed.

I have been playing with shape/symbol as if it was en route to becoming an alphabet or perhaps a long lost written language newly discovered. Like all language symbols, I am making it up. These symbols hold no deeper meaning other than I find them beautiful and making them is mind-freeing and fun.

Sometimes I “write” from left to right and sometimes the other way around. Sometimes I do not pay attention to the direction and break the line. It is easy to paint my “runes” from left to right because I’ve had a lifetime of patterning to read and write in that direction. It seems natural even though I know it has nothing to do with nature and everything to do with acculturation. I’m trying to forget all the rules and, rather than create something, I hope to discover a new promised land: an open mind.

In pursuit of my open mind I’ve made new rules to break the old rules. No brushes allowed (except to wet a surface). Try something new every day, scrapers or sandpaper or rags. Use more paint (I have a poverty mindset where paint is concerned. It’s expensive so I have developed a lifelong dedication/necessity to-make-the-paint-last rather than working freely. To help bust my poverty I’ve purchased cheap-cheap-cheap craft paint in bottles and am using up old house paint).

The most useful new rule is Don’t Think About It. Let it be beautiful as it is, not as I want it to be. Ensō. Wabi-sabi. The beauty of imperfection, a mark on paper or board, maybe or maybe not associated with a sound but certainly inspired by a silhouette or some other shape in nature.

read Kerri’s blogpost about THE TREE SILHOUETTE

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Beautiful Together [David’s blog on Not So Flawed Wednesday]

The bouquet came with pink roses. We bought it for the daisies. We could find no bouquet of daisies-by-themselves so the pink roses came home, too. After being sorted out, the daisies went one way and the roses another, eventually landing on Kerri’s night stand.

It’s important to keep in mind that my sweet wife is not a pink-appreciating-girl. She’s a black-thermal-wearing, boot and blue jeans girl. She likes her daisies because they are simple. I believed the pink roses would go through their short life mostly unappreciated.

I was wrong. The next day I found her staring at the arrangement. “I really, really like those,” she said. In our house very few things get a double-really. I can’t remember anything in pink that has ever received a single-really. And, more surprising than her double-really was how much I liked them, too. A pop of pink. They evoked a smile every time I entered the room.

“Who knew!” I said, in a fit of reverse-eloquence, adding, “We should always have flowers on your nightstand.” I meant it, too. I’m particularly fond of anything that evokes happiness, especially in these dark days of idiocracy.

As you might imagine, the pink roses were subjected to several photo shoots. Even in their decline they were kind enough to pose for a picture. There is intense beauty in aging if one has the eyes to see it. I suspect the pink roses are teaching me to open my eyes to the beauty in my present age-and-stage. Rather than stare into the mirror and ask, “Good god, what happened to me?” I am now more capable of measuring myself against the moment I am in rather than comparing myself to the 30 year old I imagine myself to be.

I am not that. I am this.

Besides, I was not all-that when I was 30. Why compare myself to a delusion rather than appreciate fully the reality of the moment?

I kiss Kerri on the forehead, telling her, “You are beautiful.”

“I don’t look like I used to!” she deflects my compliment. I considered sending her immediately to the bedroom to have a chat with the waning pink rose but, instead chose another path.

“Neither do I,” I said. “Looks like we’re going to grow more beautiful together.”

read Kerri’s blog about PINK ROSES

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