apropos of nothing.

A gekko on a tee-shirt.
because I like it.

"Indeed, if he could believe his teacher, ideal meditation had no practical application whatsoever. 

Sure, there were Westerners who practiced it as a relaxation technique, as a device for calming and centering themselves so that they might sell more stuff or fare better in office politics, but that was like using the Hope diamond to scratch grocery lists onto a bathroom mirror.


“Meditation,” said his teacher, “hasn’t got a damn thing to do with anything, ‘cause all it has to do with is nothing. 

Nothingness. Okay? 

It doesn’t develop the mind, it dissolves the mind. Self-improvement? Forget it, baby. It erases the self. Throws the ego out on its big brittle ass. What good is it? Good for nothing. 

Excellent for nothing."

--Tom Robbins, from Fierce Invalids

Consumerism

Something I work on is trying to stay away from consumerism.
Our culture seems to define success as getting more and more and more. Even our GNP is measured in growth, quantity over quality.

The ads on TV, radio, before the movies, in magazines, and on-line offer a thousand things we didn't know we needed as necessities.  I try to just ignore it all, then something catches my eye and I get sucked in.  I think I need that thing, but the truth is that thing doesn't fill a hole that the ad created.  I will just want more the next day.

My friend says "it's The Man, trying to get you to borrow to buy, then be a slave for the rest of your life paying it back."
I dream of going off the grid, growing my own food, lighting a fire to stay warm. Then I get into my comfortable bed in my temperature controlled house, and watch a movie on my new gadget.

Finding the balance is a lifetime of work, I guess.

"Beauty surrounds us, but we need to be walking in a garden to know it."
--Rumi

Creating to soothe

If I have one of those days, I collage.
There's nothing like sitting at my table, cutting and tearing, arranging then gluing, adding some words, playing with image and composition.
Maybe adding some stamps.
and maybe adding the date.
maybe more words.
and here is today's art therapy:

“A good picture is equivalent to a good deed.” -Vincent Van Gogh