talking my walk

Today it seems like playing percussion is the artistic equivalent of working in black and white. Everything is texture, contrast, framing, pace, scale, focus, subject, arrangement, pattern. When i create i tend to ignore chord structure, and i tend to ignore color. I leave them up to you

Yet when i take in the world those are the elements i am most attentive to. My ears consistently notice the pitch of windblown leaf-hiss and when burbles in water find their way to a diminishied third. My eyes are always drinking in the subtle greens which ooze out of a sunset somewhere in the transition from ruddy peach to velvet grape, without a cloud to intersect or dry this blending expression of sky.

Perhaps it is on purpose. This distinction may be the way in which i maintain separation between voice and observation as i muddle through creation. Yet i wonder on occasion what the world might sound like if i drew in harmony, what would be visible if i spoke in color.

I’m still dreaming about last weekend. or “why transformational festivals work”

At the gathering we pulled some animal medicine cards. I integrated the medicine of snake and whale into my entire festival experience and got a clearer handle on what my own medicine feels like. 

From Snake medicine I gathered the rhythm of transformation, which is transmutation and also transmission. The wriggling pattern which carries you perfectly into the future when you move your entire form to it. 

From Whale medicine i gathered the long song, the infinite story which contains all of history, and all of connection. The music is inescapable, there is nothing to do but sing it, and whichever note you are singing has a place in the composition.

Human medicine has to do with Humor, we contain every other medicine simultaneously, and we experience the conflicts and dissonance between the different medicines and messages of the world, until we flip over inside and balance the conflict, resolve into harmony.

My medicine has to do with experiential joy. The sacred mundane. My message is of the exquisitely ordinary now and an invitation to join in. 

My medicine has to do with with the little universe. The one-on-one connection with one person or one group or one planet or whatever one happens to be in view, right now it’s you, the one who reads this. Everything else besides us was required to bring you and i together to share this word. Wherever we go from here is unknowably magnificent, and for the space of this word, we are together, we are unified. 

It takes a community to raise a community, at the gathering we took turns and different levels of dedication to lift each other up the hierarchy of needs. I know that i shot up through to self-actualization many times. I witnessed the ascent of others as well. And my favorite thing to notice was that the very moment in which a human had received everything they needed was the moment when they began feeding the needs of others. And they fed it from a place of understanding their own generosity and power.

True wealth is infectious. And surplus is a joy to spread.

Sometimes people give before they are ready, sometimes those gifts mean survival for the receivers, sometimes they means death for the giver. Some systems do not receive enough to sustain themselves, some systems do not understand their own existence, but the ones who do? Those systems who are alive and self-relevant and spilling surplus? I like them. I want to be one of those. Like, all the time, not just for a weekend. And whenever i am one, i will want you to be one too. ‘Til then I’ma find some more food.

Identity. Maybe you’ve heard of it?
You should know that i intend to break it, and that i would appreciate your help in reassembling the pieces.

Part of what i do is push past the limits. i am edge seeking behavior. The moment you get comfortable with a new reality i can be found scratching at the walls and pointing out the windows to someplace new. I am not meaning to invalidate the space you have, or the way you think. I don’t think that i know any better, or that i’ve found someplace more beautiful that yours. I’ve never been to where i am reaching for, I’ve never experienced what I am trying to get you to see. This is merely what i do. I find a route to beyond, and i give you the clearest invitation i can, the option to explore further is always yours to choose.

Sculpture is the process of looking past the surface of a thing to find the form which is longing to emerge. It is the process of coming to understand tools and techniques which can remove the other stuff. It is the process of finding not only the perfect tool, but the perfect direction, momentum, and timing of use to cast a seam into the formless. It is occasionally offering a place for the emergence to part from all that came before it. Sculpture is subtlety, patience, and undeniable pressure all guided by vision. It may be the most clever destruction, it is the antithesis and partner to an unconditional creation.

Sculpture is using words like sculpture and process to define new seams in language. It is using art as a tool to separate emerging culture from the ideas which came before. By sculpture i mean less the perfect form which hides within a shroud of material, and more the attempt to reveal that form to others. I am saying ‘sculpture’ but i am talking about permaculture, I am sketching out my own definition of masculinity, I am attempting to convey they way in which I interact with all the systems of this world. And i am not saying that as a sculptor, so much as i am saying this as a sculpture.

the1janitor:

dion-thesocialist:

lordetywin:

cherscrotch:

lordetywin:

cherscrotch:

dion-thesocialist:

lordetywin:

dion-thesocialist:

“No phones/laptops in the bedroom” is going to be a rule for my kids most definitely. If there’s something you wanna look up that you don’t want to look up in front of me, then you probably shouldn’t be looking it up in the first place.

Really tho, like up until they’re 18? What about mutual trust and respect for privacy? Sometimes kids don’t wanna share somethings with their parents (feelings, crushes, things they’re too embarrassed to ask) and that’s okay. If my parents had this rule I would not have had the internet to help me with my sexuality because I certainly would not be googling that shit in front of my parents… 

I don’t want my kids using the internet to explore their sexuality. Why would I… And why would I trust a 12 year old? 12 year olds have done nothing to earn anyone’s trust.

@lordetywin wouldnt trying to raise your kids in a way that they trust you to ask questions about their sexuality and whatnot better than just letting find god knows what on the interwebs?

Firstly, I’ll just clarify that I agree with full supervision up until the age of 12 and some supervision up until 15. Yes, I would certainly like to raise my children so that they are comfortable approaching me about anything! But we cannot 100% predict their feelings and should allow them some degree of privacy in case they aren’t comfortable approaching us. Yahoo Answers was my solace during the period I was confused about my sexuality. If I didn’t have that????? I would have spent much of my teen years miserable. It’s great that you want to be approachable to your kids but you cannot guarantee they will feel that way. 

I’m just wondering what scaring content you expect them to come across? 

“I’m just wondering what scaring content you expect them to come across? “

did u really just ask what kind of child inappropriate content exists on the internet? like?

Obviously there are things like gore but…. that’s hard to stumble across. I guess we just differ on what we consider child appropriate? I don’t think there is anything inappropriate for a child to see once they reach 15. 

Stay away from children.

there is tons of child inappropriate content on tumblr alone

“I don’t want my kids using the internet to explore their sexuality. Why would I…”

So that they can grow up into a healthy adult who has a sense of their own sexuality and a respect for the sexualities of others.

“And why would I trust a 12 year old? 12 year olds have done nothing to earn anyone’s trust.”

Wait what? Are you suggesting that humans are inherently untrustworthy? Or that you require more than twelve years of experience to establish humanity? Or that you think anyone would require twelve or more years of “proof” before offering to trust someone else?

(via the1janitor)