Anyone who
tells you ‘having your wings clipped was good for you’ is missing the point. Dissonance from the self is hard to sit with.
The brain seeks an outlet so let’s turn to art.
Music corner
The song Mother’s Heartbeat reminds me of what I’ve heard Ayahuasca is like: listen to it on repeat and something is bound to come up. A soft coiling around your heart. How to move through it? Art.
Sometimes you have to go back to move forward. I’m in one of those times.
Here’s a caterpillar from my yard and what it will turn into.
(Moth image source: https://www.mass.gov/info-details/phyllira-tiger-moth)
Also one across from the library in Princeton, MA last year.
(Moth image source: https://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/species/Lophocampa-caryae)
Suburban mall shop corner
I invite you to 1998. Our mall had a new age store, NATURAL WONDERS in narrow letters, with a tan plaster stone edifice. The kind of store with orbs of wispy, hungry magenta sparks that raced to your fingers, rain stick sound showers every 3-5 minutes, and mini waterfalls for your house that misted and glowed. The kind of place where you never buy anything. A magical place. I think my dad wanted to live there (maybe we all did). Alas, paradise is a place you can only visit. Two cds, Pure Moods I and Pure Moods II, played on repeat at our house and my guess is he heard them in that store. The albums are an eclectic mix of indigenous music, Enya, and Gregorian chants, plus the X-Files and Twin Peaks themes. A few of the songs have a hint of menace at the end for unclear reasons.
Like all pasts, it was better and vaguely less vivid. But life had a lot of useful boredom back then. Maybe stay a while in the store and see what kind of art you make.
Manuals corner
My parents found this, Hints For Care Of Your Baby (general rule: never capitalize of, to, from, on, etc.), while moving house. It’s a baby manual that the hospital sent new parents home with in 1990 in Bridgeport, CT. The word Satan in the TELEPHONE section caught my eye (highlighted below). The tone swings wildly at the hand of an erratic typist.
“INTRODUCTION
Raising children is essentially common sense. Outside advice is usually general in nature. What is good for another child may not be good for yours. You can always be sure that our primary concern is what is best for you and your child’s individual needs.
TELEPHONE
The telephone, Alexander Graham Bell’s invention, should not be converted into a tool of Satan. Routine questions should be asked during your visits to our office.
Space has been provided in this book for those questions. Simply write them down as they arise.”
