On Our Own Two Feet
"Wherever we go, we are friends" -Sloth and Manatee
Sloth and Manatee
Sometimes the world feels like a push-pull between seeing everything as connected, and then trying to separate some one thing out in order to deal with it, or perceive it, or understand it. Just one thing. Or maybe two. Or five. Or… yes, this is the problem.
We get conditioned to focus our attention on singular moments, when someone crosses the finish line, or gets handed a shiny trophy, or puts on a big outfit and walks around. The news stories. The images. The summings-up. The awards ceremonies. The headlines. The memes. The “good TV.”
This can make the world feel like one big shorthand. An image of one person stands in for a whole group. A picture of a car on fire stands in for a whole city. When a couple blocks away, someone is walking their dog. That’s not in the frame.
To be fair to our hominid noggins, it made no sense to try and grok a whole entire valley when the hungry hyena was the Thing That Mattered.
But it is helpful to notice where this shorthand is coming from, and it is not from ourselves. It is from tools, screens, computers, that represent but do not experience.
This feels wildly important in this moment. We are not screens. Life is not “fixed in post-production.” But our public life feels produced. We watch people make imagery and then discuss what effect this imagery will have. Instead of talking directly to one another.
We can walk-and-talk away from this.
Those who want the most power and control stick to what they can best manipulate. Right now, in this age, that thing is screens. “Good TV.” Imagery being made to stand in for experience. Public discourse with lighting and sound. That’s not discourse. That is puppetry.
But if we walk away on our own two feet, and experience talking with one another with our own brains and our own voices, all of that changes. The cameras can’t reach us. The screens can’t splice us together into something else.
And this is how we get our power back. We no longer generate data or views. The contours of our lives become our own reality again and we dance around in it like Mon Mothma.
Brainwaves
Best of Brainwaves Volume One: The Fountain of Stuff
Best of Brainwaves Volume Two: Mom, Dad, I'm a Cat
License Cartoons from CartoonStock
Art!
Oh hey, it is the last week to buy prints to benefit the Orinda Library - a few have sold already, hooray, but there’s still lots! Hooray for that also! Get you an art friend.
At the end of the school year I gave the kids paint markers and little squares and asked them to make something with their name in there, so I could make little mosaics
BunnyFrogCatSnake
Things Of The Week
I have been watching films by Ingmar Bergman on Criterion lately. A lot of them grapple with the overlapping realities inside and outside of us, and the condition of being an artist and/or being insane. And a lot else. I’ve watched Persona, Wild Strawberries, and Through a Glass Darkly. God is a spider.
I also recommend Predator: Killer of Killers on Hulu if you want to see some truly stunning animation and sound design. But hey, it’s super violent due to being Predator and all, so bear that in mind.
My friend Bobbie wrote this amazing article about fake people manufactured by North Korea. Feels very appropriate for this particular little letter.
Okay! That's enough nonsense for now.
May you walk around on your own two feet or roll around on your own two wheels, may you enjoy some time with an invisible friend, won't you be my neighbor? - Betsy
HELLO AND THANKS FOR READING!!
Shop for books n art on my site yes yes