Thoughts about so-called modern art

A lot of people feel insulted when they see modern, which I sometimes love. But remember, it’s been around for a long ass time.
From Zen Mind Beginner’s Mind
“Beginner’s mind was a favorite expression of Dogen-zenji’s. The calligraphy of the frontispiece, also by Suzki-roshi, reads shoshin , or beginner’s mind. The Zen way of calligraphy is to write in the most straightforward, simple way as if you were a beginner, not trying to make something skillful or beautiful, but simply writing with full attention as if you were discovering what you were writing for the first time; then your full nature will be in your writings.”

Tiny Homes

I’ve been reading all about small homes. I would simply LOVE to build my own home in the woods somewhere, a la Thoreau. I’ve been reading Home Work and Building Green, two books about how to build your own shelter. Here are some quotes I like so far.
“Who could deny that the human body is a mind-boggling miracle? Imagine: each of us is safely housed within a bundle of blood, bone and guts nurturing a little glow of life while suspended in a sea of constant change and danger… Housing, likewise, originally developed slowly within particular cultures and in response to specific climates and environments. Using materials from the site and techniques developed out of long experience with an exact location and climate, each culture around the world crafted a unique style of housing from the fabric of their surroundings. In other words, traditional housing approaches were specific to the culture, climate, and environment from which they sprung… We live in a different world today. People are moving around; cultures are intermingling. An urban lifestyle predominates that doesn’t change with the seasons and isn’t connected to a specific climate or locale. The glue that holds us together is a world economy of frantic buying and selling to each other… The strength of this approach, its apparent flexibility, is also its fatal flaw. Housing solutions that don’t arise out of a slow, intricate interaction between a place and a people cannot possibly hope to nurture the delicate interaction between that place and those people that’s required for the survival of both”
–Building Green

And from Home Work:
“22 years later my reaction to the place in my dream started to take shape. I soon realized the start of the shape was something I’d had the whole time.”
–Mike Basich

Shirley Luthman

I’ve been reading Luthman, who died of cancer. I have to wonder why so many spiritual pioneers have gotten this terrible disease: Ted Andrews, Steve Jobs, etc. She has some great things to say:

“The yin is the receptive, feminine, intuitive energy; the yang the aggressive, masculine, action energy. They are brought into balance within the individual when a person makes a commitment to assertion of self in the moment, which means yin is then in control as the director and yang is used to express, support and activate the intuitive guide.”

” Staying in a situation in which you are being depreciated is based on a fear of loss, not a desire to communicate.”

“Assertion means letting your words, behavior, and expression follow the flow of feeling, back up your feelings, respect your feelings. It means, every moment in time, doing what you want to do and not doing what you do not want to do.”
–From Collection

Audacity

In her book, The Artist’s Way, Julia Cameron talks about talent and audacity. I couldn’t agree more. Lately, I’ve been challenged by the acting community here in Palm Springs. On the side of the administrators, audacity seems to rule – putting oneself out there. And I’m needing to do it more as an artist. Slowly, toe-by-toe, I’m inching out more and more into the public eye. To my father, of course, nothing could be better. To me, it’s scary being the spotlight. This is one of the reasons for this blog.

Covey

Years ago, I read Stephen Covey’s The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. While I enjoyed it at the time, I’ve sort of moved on to different philosophies of life. However, one thing that Covey said has always stuck with me. It was his discussion between the difference of leadership and management. That difference, he says, is that true leadership decides what things to get done while management simply gets these things done. Covey uses the example of clearing a path in a jungle. It’s the leaders who climb up to the tree and decide where the path should go, how long it will take to get there and whether or not the path should even be built. Then, they call down to the managers, who do the actual clearing and building of that path.
I’ve been involved in a few theater projects here in the desert, and like most theatre companies, it seems after something, anything, bad or good, is written, the first idea is to say, “let’s put it up.”
Most of the shows that have been put up have simply not been ready for an audience or even ready for a reading, yet it has all been done whether the audiences care or not.
Recently, I went to lunch with a friend. He said, “Look at all So-n-So has done. Films, productions, readings…”
Most of these have been terrible, everyone I’ve talked to has agreed. I stared at him blank-faced. Yes. Look at all he’s done.