Touchstones

I'm scheduled to fly out to San Francisco, later this afternoon. I'm planning on a long run on the lakefront this morning, and a good long meditation to set the tone for the day. These are my trusty tools to help me settle into my body. I think I've finally recovered from the benefit on Saturday, two ten-hour sleeping sessions have left me feeling refreshed.

I am re-reading a book that is one of my touchstone's (along with "Impro," by Keith Johnstone - "life is a status game!"): "Seeing is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees," by Lawrence Weschler. It is a profile of the artist Robert Irwin, who through his paintings and "sculptures," and "environments," explores fundamental questions about what, and how, we "see."

It also a book about "the search." Irwin is one of those inspiring characters, who reminds us that we can live with mystery and wonder and flow, and the best way to do this, is through the disciplined examination of our art and life; through the "good work," (which can be anything that lets us use our imaginative, creative selves) we can open up to fundamental, transformative realities. In Irwin's formulation the "art experience," is what the art object creates inside of us. What we do, what we see, transforms us, if we are intent, awake, if we let it in!