it is possible that in art we remember WHO WE ARE - and also celebrate who we are

"I heard Kahu's high treble voice shouting something to the sea. She was singing to the whale. Telling it to acknowledge her coming.

"Karanga mai, karanga mai, karanga mai." Call me. She raised her head and began to call to the whale." - The Whale Rider, Witi Ihimaera

The other day I was musing that the cadence of social media was like call and response. Except, I haven't used this blog in that sense in well over two years, maybe three. Once 'twas a magnet that aggregated those kinfolk who had similar passions as myself, and the network was living and lively as each had their own blog-spaces to explore themselves, and ourselves, and crystallize and capture our thoughts, ideas, musings, visions, and dreams some place ephemerally concrete (and concrete calls beckon all matter of responses from the multiverses) that we might share with each other.

It's no secret that everything changed post-tsunami for me, and my passions re-prioritized.

I can't necessarily characterize this blog as a personal journal either, as I tend towards writing what's "acceptable" rather unravelling (thus revealing) all the layers of my nested Russian doll selves. It's not so much that I'm afraid to - rather, I'd convinced myself that I'd reach a broader set of peoples (oh, perhaps that mass media mindset?) whom otherwise might shut off this voice if they suspected it wasn't quite conforming to the dictates of "normal."

"A pair of Johns Hopkins and government scientists have discovered that when jazz musicians improvise, their brains turn off areas linked to self-censoring and inhibition, and turn on those that let self-expression flow." - "This Is Your Brain On Jazz: Researchers Use MRI To Study Spontaneity, Creativity", ScienceDaily, February 28, 2008

"It is possible that in art we remember WHO WE ARE - and also celebrate who we are." - Michael McClure

Celebrate, not camouflage. A while ago I wrote "seek consorts, not converts", the only way that's possible is to call out your wyld self. I'm not sure much happens in hiding our Self.

Reaching masses isn't quite the thing that makes me sing. I'd rather reach matches.

Though I live in a different context than most, so be it. Worst case, since I'm not doing this for fame and name, the very worst case is I lose a few subscribers - and regain my soul. Anyhow, there's at least 144 personalities to this here oversoul, so I won't just be communicating to the bit-bucket in the cloud.

A field of mustard,

no whale in sight,

the sea darkening. - Yosa Buson, Essential Haiku

No whale in sight. No whale sigh, or at least that appears to be the perception. One fundamental to "my context" is oneness a.k.a. wholeness. Pretty much my starting point, my given, from which all else springs. We'd be speaking in different tongues far far from the Tower of Babel should that not make innate "sense" to you. Resound in oneness, know by knowing, and the call shall be sensical.

"The utterances of the heart— unlike those of the discriminating intellect— always relate to the whole.” - Carl Jung

Here's a fictional Maori elder's sermon on oneness, and as such it is one spontaneous voice in the symphony:

"...."As he grew in his arrogance, he started to drive a wedge through the original oneness of the world. In the passing of Time he divided the world into that half he could believe in and that half he could not believe in. The real and the unreal. The natural and the supernatural. The present and the past. The scientific and the fantastic. He put a barrier between both worlds, and everything on his side was called rational and everything on the other side was called irrational. Belief in our Maori Gods," he emphasized, "has often been considered irrational."

Koro Apirana paused again. He had us in the palms of his hands and was considerate about our ignorance, but I was wondering what he was driving at. Suddenly he gestured to the sea.

"You have all seen the whale," he said. "You have all seen the sacred sign tattooed on its head. Is the tattoo there by accident or by design? Why did a whale of its appearance strand itself here and not at Wainui? Does it belong in the real world or the unreal world?"

"The real," someone called.

"Is it natural or supernatural?"

"It is supernatural," a second voice said.

Koro Apirana put up his hands to stop the debate. "No," he said, "it is both. It is a reminder of the oneness that the world once was. It is the birth cord joining past and present, reality and fantasy. It is both," he thundered, "and if we have forgotten the communion then we have ceased to be Maori!" - The Whale Rider, Witi Ihimaera

Art credits Expectations, by Christophe Vacher; Expectations (detail), by Christophe Vacher;

p.s. Recently read The Whale Rider (popularized as a Sundance film). Adore the novel - so much richer than the movie, which I liked. That's the second book I read in a row, quite unintentionally deliberate, on indigenous wisdom.The first was a re-reading of Of Water and the Spirit: Ritual, Magic and Initiation in the Life of an African Shaman, by Malidoma Some - the book that rocked my tidy, known world six years ago.

p.p. s. The 40 days of extraordinary miracles felt too coerced a project, not quite the stuff of inspiration, so it's let go.

Rather, I'd like to play with delving into our most improvisational, spontaneous nature through tone, sound, lyricism, language, spring, nature, eARTh in the next few weeks (heck, maybe longer.)

Emphasis on "Our" as I'm inviting participation. Stay tuned. As the kick-off will be the first rays of Spring, on the vernal Equinox, March 20th.

Comments

[donna]

"Reaching masses isn't quite the thing that makes me sing. I'd rather reach matches."

Someone told me in comments today that a recent blog post was like "listening to people talking about me in the locker room". I wasn't quite sure what to make of that one.

I guess you have to remember that to reach the masses, you have to appeal to the lowest common denominator. Not my style. If people choose to be offended by something, you probably can't write much of anything without offending them. Oh well.

[Becky]

"p.p. s. The 40 days of extraordinary miracles felt too coerced a project, not quite the stuff of inspiration, so it's let go."

For the first time EVER, I was urged by something internal to observe Lent this year. I chose to "give up" television and devote the extra time to preparing for an upcoming Reiki class near the end of March. Before the end of that class, I had been asked by my teachers to practice self-treatment for the next 21 days. I almost laughed out loud because the 21-day practice is such a close parallel (in spirit) to the 40-day period I had already begun and such a nice synchronistic fit with the Lent initiative. Both efforts seem a bit self-serving...but definitely not coerced...maybe exactly what I should be doing in this season of renewal. Ahhh!

[Michael]

This is absolutely a post that gets right in there and reaches me as no other one has.

I will respond once I know why Eveylin.

Kindest,
Michael

[Evelyn Rodriguez]

Thank you Donna. That was exactly the term that came to me too as I was writing the post but I didn't use it explicitly - LCD, lowest common denominator. Too much of what I read seems to aim to appeal to the LCD, and thus very very few words peal - as in bells ringing - anymore. The Whale Rider speaks to the HCD, and that's why it compelled me to read it from cover to cover.

So I feel that people also share a Highest Common Denominator, yet that is what is skirted the most often in "media," or whatever it is that we might call this communication. Well, HCD, isn't accurate as it's all encompassing like the most infinite outer layer of the nested Russian doll.

Totally down on the LCD quality of social media lately, yet very touched by what Daniel Light calls "mass intimacy," and yes, it's a paradox, but what he wrote also got me musing there must be some way to speak of my life and my experiments with truth without invalidating anyone else's... I don't mean to offend anyone, though I'm more likely to confuse than offend as I'm exploring territory that I've never explored in any lift-time. I just don't want to drain my energy censoring. (Querying myself: "Is this too out there?", for instance.)

Second half, such as The Post Secrets sections is quite genuine, not gimmicky like so much of what's written: http://www.daniellight.co.uk/2008/03/sxswi-2008-we-people.html

Becky, I am so honored that the 40 days post got you to experiment with living without the vicariousness of television, you added extra hours to your own adventure. I really just meant coerced personally, for me. It was like a last ditch effort to feel "re-connected," as I'm still adjusting to finding my place in New Orleans. Since the 40 day period through Lent to Easter worked so well for me last year I thought I'd try it again. But it wasn't sticking this year - again, for me.

Thanks Michael, And, I like this related term for "indigenous" - (this last term having a derivation from Greek, meaning "sprung from the earth").

Thus, wisdom springing from the earth.

[Evelyn Rodriguez]

Ooops, the word is autochthonous - too ghastly really, I just like "the sprung from the eARTh" part.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indigenous_peoples

[Siona]

Yes! The Highest Common Denominator! And you're so right about what's so mysterious and brilliant and crazy about it: how it's infinitely inclusive & merely requires recognition.

And letting go, I can't help but feel, opened you to far more miracles than could every be crammed into 40 days.