Think of moments, including birth, as memories rippling through our bodies. My mind is only one of millions,billions, like stars. Imagine one moment as all there is, what it is to be in an upturned coffee table, sailing the Horn of Africa in a storm, masts quivering, sails snapping, ropes stretching, wood creaking, water blowing, the full moment's movement all you feel, thrilling and real. I began to wonder if our images are real just because we think them. And lost, gone forever, if we forget. I wondered if we disappear as easily. I began (as we do) with a mind open to the ocean of innocence and experience, but my thoughts were squeezed by ancient bands of beliefs formed from chemical memories, tightening and tilting and coloring my world. This book is my way of defining how the circle of experience spirals and widens; how my egg of a mind began its fertilization, its quest to know itself. Ultimately, the mind always succeeds. With love, we grow up. There is infinity to remember once we begin.
Gulley Jimson and I used to be best friends, even though he is made-up. Wayward human and color appreciator,he is a main character in Joyce Cary's novel trilogy,one of my favorites. Irish Joyce Cary studied to be a painter, served in the British military and civil service in West Africa (where I grew up). William Blake, intoxicating painting, a complete devotion to color and the creative passion, and a disregard for pennies and those without appetites - how could I not acknowledge these roots?
Monday, June 29, 2009
Think of moments, including birth, as memories rippling through our bodies. My mind is only one of millions,billions, like stars. Imagine one moment as all there is, what it is to be in an upturned coffee table, sailing the Horn of Africa in a storm, masts quivering, sails snapping, ropes stretching, wood creaking, water blowing, the full moment's movement all you feel, thrilling and real. I began to wonder if our images are real just because we think them. And lost, gone forever, if we forget. I wondered if we disappear as easily. I began (as we do) with a mind open to the ocean of innocence and experience, but my thoughts were squeezed by ancient bands of beliefs formed from chemical memories, tightening and tilting and coloring my world. This book is my way of defining how the circle of experience spirals and widens; how my egg of a mind began its fertilization, its quest to know itself. Ultimately, the mind always succeeds. With love, we grow up. There is infinity to remember once we begin.
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