We could have had lunch together that day
We could have met there so easily;
It was all planned out beforehand and only the day to set
The glass chandeliers were perfect (reminding me of the family aesthetic),
The food divine
The bead shop next door was exactly what we all like
And a special room for guys - with antlers and Woody Crumbo prints
Everything was right for a lovely lunch and some pleasant conversation
... a long but not too long car ride there and back
A straight road and not too much traffic, just cruise
But, instead, you are not there but in a hospital bed
(and we are on the way to see you)....You had......chosen
To do something else that weekend and so had we, then there was....
Some speed, some slush ...a slide, some car rolls, and hanging upside down in the car...battered by skis and cameras....in a creek !
A few pefect people rushing to cut the seat belt
And ease you and your broken neck to the bank
As you shivered in shock, then a miraculous Flight for Life
Helicoper ride to Denver, then an operation and then
Morphine self medication and nurses every few minutes waking you up
And family and loved ones gathered around,
You are going to be OK, we think, and you are talking to us
You, the person who just spent a year overcoming serious cancer,
A miracle within a miracle behind a battered head; bright green eyes peering
and darting to converse and make contact,
And you have not looked in the mirror - thank you very much,
And we are all in shock and in awe;
The young girl, the daughter of your tow truck man, is in and out of consciousness
In the adjoining room. What are the chances of that.
And what were the chances to have a EMT, a cop and
A nurse to rush to your car within seconds out there on Trout Creek Pass
Overlooking the massive snow covered Collegiate Range or is it the other way around?
And in pops the ambulance driver from Salida, the flight crew person, who next?
How is it that the choices we make for what to do today
And where to do it and how - can seem so eerily tightwoven
Into the history of the people and places around us
Like ribbons of multiple faceted threads intertwined in love tangles,
Fraught with possibilites; binding together the
"multiverse" and creating shock and awe.
A family reunion that was unplanned, but full of love and important messages
For all concerned.
No god to thank, just events to ponder; clear and amber crystal chandeliers
With crystal balls for accents and interest; for those who peer into such things.
writings, thoughts, politics, land ethic, land management, southwest, new mexico, santa fe, watershed, world, ecology, plants, current events, blog, art and sculpture. ...
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Thursday, March 17, 2011
The Problem With The Earth is Earthquakes...
The problem with the earth is earthquakes
The problem with the ocean is tsunamis
The problem with nuclear is meltdowns
The problem with people is denial
The problem with denial is painful death
so when the earth weighs in and shakes the buildings down
and the oceans surge forth and drown everything in its path
and the cooling towers fail and spew radiation that destroys life
...the people die painful deaths
And there is nothing we can do about it
Once the die is cast that way
And the bigger the body is
The harder it falls...
And that means we cannot pray our ways out of it
We cannot talk our ways out of it
Nature is God,
In that respect
And the good and the bad die together,
And so our job is to pray for knowledge not denial
And the miracle of truth is that we begin to see
Things for the way they are and not the way we want them to be
And truth is the spiritual principle that we seek
For instance we can begin to ask questions
Such as: are there any big nuclear facilities near us that might contaminate
Or damage our lives somehow?
Are there any forces of nature that we need to look at with open eyes,
Like flood plains or droughts or gas lines or human denials or problems of
such huge scale that pain awaits, like bubbles and corporate greed,
And then do something with those truths in mind.
St. Patrick’s day is so very Irish and a celebration of green,
And Murphy’s law follows in its wake,
Today, on the eve of destruction.
“Let the spirits of green truth flow today” might be a good toast.
The problem with the ocean is tsunamis
The problem with nuclear is meltdowns
The problem with people is denial
The problem with denial is painful death
so when the earth weighs in and shakes the buildings down
and the oceans surge forth and drown everything in its path
and the cooling towers fail and spew radiation that destroys life
...the people die painful deaths
And there is nothing we can do about it
Once the die is cast that way
And the bigger the body is
The harder it falls...
And that means we cannot pray our ways out of it
We cannot talk our ways out of it
Nature is God,
In that respect
And the good and the bad die together,
And so our job is to pray for knowledge not denial
And the miracle of truth is that we begin to see
Things for the way they are and not the way we want them to be
And truth is the spiritual principle that we seek
For instance we can begin to ask questions
Such as: are there any big nuclear facilities near us that might contaminate
Or damage our lives somehow?
Are there any forces of nature that we need to look at with open eyes,
Like flood plains or droughts or gas lines or human denials or problems of
such huge scale that pain awaits, like bubbles and corporate greed,
And then do something with those truths in mind.
St. Patrick’s day is so very Irish and a celebration of green,
And Murphy’s law follows in its wake,
Today, on the eve of destruction.
“Let the spirits of green truth flow today” might be a good toast.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Earth Weighing In
The earth shook and it was shocking
Now what do I do, what do you do?
The turtle jumped from the waters
The elephants paused to get their balance
The seas spilled off the flat earth
I wonder about shock and denial and acceptance
Who to tell and why to bother
Just be quiet and put one foot in front of the other
This is not doomsday, rather, when the earth
joins the party for a moment, weighing in
Shocking, isn’t it?
Now what do I do, what do you do?
The turtle jumped from the waters
The elephants paused to get their balance
The seas spilled off the flat earth
I wonder about shock and denial and acceptance
Who to tell and why to bother
Just be quiet and put one foot in front of the other
This is not doomsday, rather, when the earth
joins the party for a moment, weighing in
Shocking, isn’t it?
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Thorstens Vasorden
This is the Vasorden that Thorsten carved in the Bothaus on Vashon Island in Stockholm. I will add more pics soon, as I find them and download them into the blog. This is fun!
Friday, March 11, 2011
Thorsten 1
I will treasure these photos of my grandfather's work. It is a wonderful
array of extraordinary quality work. Thanks also for the description by Mr.
Mansell. I will pass these on to other family members. Thank you for
taking the time to send the file attachments. I did not know him well,
except as a young child (last time I saw him I was 8) as they were
relatively old when my father was born to them and so died when "we" were
young. He helped us make some carvings in his shop when we visited, but the
time frame was short and the memories vague. I took an interest in wood
myself, probably as a way of finding identity in my heritage; something to
grasp onto, as I knew he was a master and it was something I could be proud
of and could hold onto (literally with genetically gifted wrists and body
build). I moved into custom fine furniture making as a young adult (which
Thorsten also did with his brother in Sweden; making extraordinary
"duplicates" of priceless rococo antique furniture to fill out sets, etc.)
and pretty much have hung that and woodcarving as my shingle for all these
years-then adding on sculpture (bronze, cast iron, glass) to my artistic
pallet, of few pieces you may have seen in the fineartamerica.com website.
I am heartened that Thorsten was very interested in making duplicates by way
of molds and that is what I have done for a piece of his; his carved wedding
bowl-the traditional Swedish wedding tradition and cast it in bronze and
cast iron and glass in my foundry.
The Swedes that I met at the "Vasa" Museum (a different "vasa") were
interested in his work and he wrote about the symbolism he believed to be
inherent in the original carvings of the Vasorden (he re-carved the
ornamentation using a magnifying glass in one hand to interpret the old
photographs and a chisel in the other), which he began to believe were
inspired by Immanual Swedenborg back when the original boat was made as he
was very familiar with the intricate symbolism of the "heavenly kingdom" as
described by Swedenborg who lived in that 18th century era. I believe the
Lutheran Swedes even today were somewhat taken aback by his assertions and
projections about this magnificent carving as it probably challenges the
mainstream culture. According to Val, he saw symbolism everywhere and was a
master of it. Of course his carvings as you have shown - are immersed in
symbolism. I was also interested to learn that, contrary to my assumptions
that my father grew up in a solid monolithic Swedenborgian community in Bryn
Athyn, Philadelphia, that the community had split/factionalized over the
issue of whether one needs an intermediary in order to be in touch with
"God" and he and my grandmother (who wrote a voluminous biography of
Swedenborg) were of the "pray in your closet" variety, something which I am
also proud of.
Hope those details do not rock too many boats.
array of extraordinary quality work. Thanks also for the description by Mr.
Mansell. I will pass these on to other family members. Thank you for
taking the time to send the file attachments. I did not know him well,
except as a young child (last time I saw him I was 8) as they were
relatively old when my father was born to them and so died when "we" were
young. He helped us make some carvings in his shop when we visited, but the
time frame was short and the memories vague. I took an interest in wood
myself, probably as a way of finding identity in my heritage; something to
grasp onto, as I knew he was a master and it was something I could be proud
of and could hold onto (literally with genetically gifted wrists and body
build). I moved into custom fine furniture making as a young adult (which
Thorsten also did with his brother in Sweden; making extraordinary
"duplicates" of priceless rococo antique furniture to fill out sets, etc.)
and pretty much have hung that and woodcarving as my shingle for all these
years-then adding on sculpture (bronze, cast iron, glass) to my artistic
pallet, of few pieces you may have seen in the fineartamerica.com website.
I am heartened that Thorsten was very interested in making duplicates by way
of molds and that is what I have done for a piece of his; his carved wedding
bowl-the traditional Swedish wedding tradition and cast it in bronze and
cast iron and glass in my foundry.
The Swedes that I met at the "Vasa" Museum (a different "vasa") were
interested in his work and he wrote about the symbolism he believed to be
inherent in the original carvings of the Vasorden (he re-carved the
ornamentation using a magnifying glass in one hand to interpret the old
photographs and a chisel in the other), which he began to believe were
inspired by Immanual Swedenborg back when the original boat was made as he
was very familiar with the intricate symbolism of the "heavenly kingdom" as
described by Swedenborg who lived in that 18th century era. I believe the
Lutheran Swedes even today were somewhat taken aback by his assertions and
projections about this magnificent carving as it probably challenges the
mainstream culture. According to Val, he saw symbolism everywhere and was a
master of it. Of course his carvings as you have shown - are immersed in
symbolism. I was also interested to learn that, contrary to my assumptions
that my father grew up in a solid monolithic Swedenborgian community in Bryn
Athyn, Philadelphia, that the community had split/factionalized over the
issue of whether one needs an intermediary in order to be in touch with
"God" and he and my grandmother (who wrote a voluminous biography of
Swedenborg) were of the "pray in your closet" variety, something which I am
also proud of.
Hope those details do not rock too many boats.
Japan and Christchurch earthquakes
Arturo and the Tortoise Shell (or Slipping Through the Cracks)
Arturo’s brother found a turtle shell in the desert and gave it to Arturo, and I met Arturo at the foundry in Vegas, Nuevo Mexico,and I helped him because he had hurt his back, so he went “back” to school to retrain; to be an artist. So I helped him scrape the plaster on the mold of the turtle and turn it around and fight the time, cause plaster of paris can set up on you real quick, so the knife must move fast and his back was not fully up to the task and mine was, at the time. The next time I saw my slight friend, he was painting something special: the patron saint of his village had been stolen recently, the male doll all dressed in fine old handmade lace and the frame would incorporate a litter, so we were talking about how to make it, cause, on Easter Sunday or thereabouts, it was carried he said, “by the majordomos”. I thought there was only one on the acequia system, so I asked why he used the plural and he said, “because the two majordomos and their wives carry it.” I was amazed at that imagery and that archetypal beauty...and that cultural reality. He gave me the mold one day as a gift; the one of the turtle and it is many moons since I have seen my talented friend; as the oil painting was stunning, in my opinion, what with all that lace. I cast the turtle in bronze and clay and glass; thinking it was beautiful and, also, stunning, what with all that perfect back detail- as beautiful in its own way as the lace...my son even wants one - the glass one - and it has been in shows around these parts, touting tortoises.
I know you find them around here, cause one year someone found a turtle on the railroad tracks and we kept it for a while and then decided to let it go.....and Tom found a dried shell up on the top of his mountain. Perhaps our old friend was dropped up there by a hawk ...or an eagle. And I thought of the ancient Greek story that points to the fact that we do not really know when we will die; like the guy in Athens who walked outside onto the streets, and was killed by a turtle dropped by an eagle.
So I was in Christchurch, New Zealand, a few days ago; down by the river to fish. I fished for a few minutes and was leaning as close to the river as I could lean without falling in when, to my horror, I felt the world shake and I spun, somehow, and dived under the electric fence line and crouched on the farmer’s pasture on all fours in horror and I was swearing and one can imagine what I was saying, can’t one? I was all alone, except for the cows, unphased, across the river; chewing the grass and not stampeding!
And now, oddly, I was at the end of the world, and was a survivor myself.. of the staggering devastating forces of nature.......swearing.
So I had a bronze turtle shell that I had never chased totally and was lying around, and I thought of what to do to process that scenario by the river, somehow and I looked at the turtle with its bizarre “head” like the epitome of shock, so I made a sculpture about the earthquake and the water and seeing the broken churches; the bronze turtle with the horrified one eyed head diving out of the grasp of the waters
Then today I woke up early this morning ( 3/11/2011)and saw the news: an earthquake 1000 times the strength of Christchurch (2/22/2011) 200 miles from Tokyo and I saw the devastation one more time; even worse
This time I could relate to it....... and I thought about all those people crouched on the ground or wherever they were - swearing exactly the way I did, probably. And thought about how the spires fell from the cathedral and how ours, in Santa Fe, was, perhaps thankfully, never finished. And I thought about when I was in China many years ago, as a young man, when our interpreter told me the worst swear words in Chinese, one being t.. ma… and the other was the Chinese word for turtle he said, Wang … or wang ba …, which made him and everyone else around blush, back in that halcyon moment. So when I started to think about all this, this morning, while watching a tsunami carry away everything in its path, and a whilrpool vortex larger than a rugby stadium in Christchurch and all the devastation like I had just walked through myself; fires, sirens, collapsed buildings, people placing one foot in fron of the other and in shock and I remembered the rest of the story: the turtle part. You see, the turtle was the one that held up the four elephants that held up the flat earth, and, when tipped, the earth and the waters were fragilly susceptible to breakage and spilage, and so I saw some connections in my new weltanschauung that ties together Arturos back and my Chinese comrades and my sussurous creeks and the tsunamis …….and the questioning eyes of the child I passed by in Christchurch and, intuitively, winked at, as we passed each other ….into the uncertain future........swearing each in our own way, knowing more than we did the day before...each in our own way.....atlas shrugging...turtles diving and swearing.
So the Iriquois, the New Zealanders, the Japanese, the Chinese and the New Mexican sons all have had the turtle standing and diving, and discovered what holds up those turtles......many more turtles, and what holds up the world....those four majordomos just like my friend said...and we all were in shock , even the earth, and we all carried the litter as we could.
Arturo’s brother found a turtle shell in the desert and gave it to Arturo, and I met Arturo at the foundry in Vegas, Nuevo Mexico,and I helped him because he had hurt his back, so he went “back” to school to retrain; to be an artist. So I helped him scrape the plaster on the mold of the turtle and turn it around and fight the time, cause plaster of paris can set up on you real quick, so the knife must move fast and his back was not fully up to the task and mine was, at the time. The next time I saw my slight friend, he was painting something special: the patron saint of his village had been stolen recently, the male doll all dressed in fine old handmade lace and the frame would incorporate a litter, so we were talking about how to make it, cause, on Easter Sunday or thereabouts, it was carried he said, “by the majordomos”. I thought there was only one on the acequia system, so I asked why he used the plural and he said, “because the two majordomos and their wives carry it.” I was amazed at that imagery and that archetypal beauty...and that cultural reality. He gave me the mold one day as a gift; the one of the turtle and it is many moons since I have seen my talented friend; as the oil painting was stunning, in my opinion, what with all that lace. I cast the turtle in bronze and clay and glass; thinking it was beautiful and, also, stunning, what with all that perfect back detail- as beautiful in its own way as the lace...my son even wants one - the glass one - and it has been in shows around these parts, touting tortoises.
I know you find them around here, cause one year someone found a turtle on the railroad tracks and we kept it for a while and then decided to let it go.....and Tom found a dried shell up on the top of his mountain. Perhaps our old friend was dropped up there by a hawk ...or an eagle. And I thought of the ancient Greek story that points to the fact that we do not really know when we will die; like the guy in Athens who walked outside onto the streets, and was killed by a turtle dropped by an eagle.
So I was in Christchurch, New Zealand, a few days ago; down by the river to fish. I fished for a few minutes and was leaning as close to the river as I could lean without falling in when, to my horror, I felt the world shake and I spun, somehow, and dived under the electric fence line and crouched on the farmer’s pasture on all fours in horror and I was swearing and one can imagine what I was saying, can’t one? I was all alone, except for the cows, unphased, across the river; chewing the grass and not stampeding!
And now, oddly, I was at the end of the world, and was a survivor myself.. of the staggering devastating forces of nature.......swearing.
So I had a bronze turtle shell that I had never chased totally and was lying around, and I thought of what to do to process that scenario by the river, somehow and I looked at the turtle with its bizarre “head” like the epitome of shock, so I made a sculpture about the earthquake and the water and seeing the broken churches; the bronze turtle with the horrified one eyed head diving out of the grasp of the waters
Then today I woke up early this morning ( 3/11/2011)and saw the news: an earthquake 1000 times the strength of Christchurch (2/22/2011) 200 miles from Tokyo and I saw the devastation one more time; even worse
This time I could relate to it....... and I thought about all those people crouched on the ground or wherever they were - swearing exactly the way I did, probably. And thought about how the spires fell from the cathedral and how ours, in Santa Fe, was, perhaps thankfully, never finished. And I thought about when I was in China many years ago, as a young man, when our interpreter told me the worst swear words in Chinese, one being t.. ma… and the other was the Chinese word for turtle he said, Wang … or wang ba …, which made him and everyone else around blush, back in that halcyon moment. So when I started to think about all this, this morning, while watching a tsunami carry away everything in its path, and a whilrpool vortex larger than a rugby stadium in Christchurch and all the devastation like I had just walked through myself; fires, sirens, collapsed buildings, people placing one foot in fron of the other and in shock and I remembered the rest of the story: the turtle part. You see, the turtle was the one that held up the four elephants that held up the flat earth, and, when tipped, the earth and the waters were fragilly susceptible to breakage and spilage, and so I saw some connections in my new weltanschauung that ties together Arturos back and my Chinese comrades and my sussurous creeks and the tsunamis …….and the questioning eyes of the child I passed by in Christchurch and, intuitively, winked at, as we passed each other ….into the uncertain future........swearing each in our own way, knowing more than we did the day before...each in our own way.....atlas shrugging...turtles diving and swearing.
So the Iriquois, the New Zealanders, the Japanese, the Chinese and the New Mexican sons all have had the turtle standing and diving, and discovered what holds up those turtles......many more turtles, and what holds up the world....those four majordomos just like my friend said...and we all were in shock , even the earth, and we all carried the litter as we could.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
More about the multiverse
http://thor-sigstedt.blogspot.com/
I have been thinking toaday about some ideas of how things work. I noticed quite a few interesting articles in the New York Times today, March 8, 2011, that relate to the thought that we 1)need to realize that we are working with rational thought and emotions at the same time and need to pay attention to their interconnectedness (david brooks) and that evolution is related to social interaction and reinforcement, so that leads to genetic predispositions for altruism and, also, religion (article about EO Wilson) and the thought that occurred to me was that there is probably a multiplicity of influences that affect genetic heritages and that, as we often do and need to "walk on two legs" or even more legs; as we live in a multiverse and not a universe, with dimensions galore, etc. So that we have the possibility that some people are actually more wired for soldiering and others for peacful activity and that is part of the dynamics that make up how things work on our planet. It explains why opposing ideas seem to be functioning so strongly together. So perhaps it is not as simple as one might think and in some ways, it is. The other article in the Times was about the US Institute of Peace, which is presently threatened right now with no funding, but which has played a strong role in recent worl events, whether we know it or not. And the thinking of Gene Sharp about non-violent action has greatly influenced the Egyptian revolution right now, as well as others. So it is interesting to see the contrast with the fighting in Lybia with the activities and successes in Egypt and other places right now. So, as we continue to affect our own genetics through the successes of our thought and actions, it is good to see that there is a dynamic which we can see played out right in front of us. Unfortunately the fighters and followers of vulgar darwinism make the battle for peace more difficult. The other article that I really liked was about memory and how working with our minds to have a better memory is an act of exciting one's life by making brilliant and creative connections between what we know and what we are learning, associations that make life much more interesting. So I say forge ahead with non zero thinking and all the rest and .....enjoy!
I have been thinking toaday about some ideas of how things work. I noticed quite a few interesting articles in the New York Times today, March 8, 2011, that relate to the thought that we 1)need to realize that we are working with rational thought and emotions at the same time and need to pay attention to their interconnectedness (david brooks) and that evolution is related to social interaction and reinforcement, so that leads to genetic predispositions for altruism and, also, religion (article about EO Wilson) and the thought that occurred to me was that there is probably a multiplicity of influences that affect genetic heritages and that, as we often do and need to "walk on two legs" or even more legs; as we live in a multiverse and not a universe, with dimensions galore, etc. So that we have the possibility that some people are actually more wired for soldiering and others for peacful activity and that is part of the dynamics that make up how things work on our planet. It explains why opposing ideas seem to be functioning so strongly together. So perhaps it is not as simple as one might think and in some ways, it is. The other article in the Times was about the US Institute of Peace, which is presently threatened right now with no funding, but which has played a strong role in recent worl events, whether we know it or not. And the thinking of Gene Sharp about non-violent action has greatly influenced the Egyptian revolution right now, as well as others. So it is interesting to see the contrast with the fighting in Lybia with the activities and successes in Egypt and other places right now. So, as we continue to affect our own genetics through the successes of our thought and actions, it is good to see that there is a dynamic which we can see played out right in front of us. Unfortunately the fighters and followers of vulgar darwinism make the battle for peace more difficult. The other article that I really liked was about memory and how working with our minds to have a better memory is an act of exciting one's life by making brilliant and creative connections between what we know and what we are learning, associations that make life much more interesting. So I say forge ahead with non zero thinking and all the rest and .....enjoy!
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