FRN@NYU.NYC

Ok, something happened to this... wonder where the link went? I will investigate.

Why I love NYC

I just spent a week down at NYU for a Faculty Resource Network Summer seminar. The topic was "Art, Public Policy and Politics." It was an adventure for me as I do not usually get to read sociology or policy. I live in a world of ontological possibilities and reality is a nice place to visit. The best thing about the seminar was the range of experience and interest among the 24 participants. Around one table we had:

-working artists from Atlantic City to Puerto Rico

-museum founders and leaders

-academics in art history, sociology, psychology, economics, and rhetoric-- and of course, philosophy but just two of us

-librarians of architecture

-performance artists and art therapists

-well, and more than I can recall.

Each person reads, listens and comments from his or her own perspective so that made for some fascinating conversations to follow, although at times confusing for this bear with little brain.

Now, here are some photos from the city experience. I do not intend a narrative commentary but have some fun. Look for the photo album marked FRN@NYU.NYC

Here is a video experiment: Amagansett on May 10, 2009. It was windy, sunny and gorgeous.

Here are an assortment of photos from May 10th in Amagansett, Long Island.

Goats- the answer to a lot of our problems

Ok, So my daughter has acquired a pet goat, actually Pan in disguise, who follows her around her garden and keeps her company as well as centered in the world. I want a goat. In fact, I am thinking that the world would be a better place if each person had to keep a goat. Goats need affirmation, by that I mean food, and something to do. Goats remind us that we are human and that other creatures exist in the world, thank you very much. Goats challenge mythologies of Satanic beings whose eyes and horns just happen, just happen, to be quite goat-like. Goats would take us out of ourselves, our cerebral centers of I-ness, and remind us that the world looks different through the eyes of other beings, including goats.

So, think about it. Why not a goat?

Springing along

Today felt and smelled like spring. Of course I was in the deep end of the pool of classes, online grading, paper collecting, quiz-giving and only surfaced to feel the air at the end of they day. Each day comes round and perfect and we squander them as we scurry around doing things busily.

Perhaps it is time to stop and simply see.

Attention Must be Paid

Perusing the papers today I see picture after picture of men who have been laid off or “excessed.” How can we speak of “excessing” a fellow human being? --Dismissing them as unnecessary, insignificant? Their faces share a common look: they are in their 50s and are trying to maintain their dignity in the stark reality of a dollars and cents economy that could care less. They have taken care of their families, worked to feed their babies and send them to college. They have served their country and their communities. They were accounted as a member of a work force. Their faces show struggle but also pride. Their eyes reveal the worry as to how they will keep their children in school, pay their mortgage, hold up their heads in their community. As middle aged men they see themselves as expendable and they know their future does not look bright. No one’s does, of course, in the current economic meltdown but if you are a 55 year old man, too young to retire and too old to re-invent yourself perhaps, where do you go? His family and friends look to him for nurture, for guidance, for protection. If he is married, his spouse works hard too. Perhaps she works in the home or perhaps out there in the world but their life is on the rocks and neither quite knows what to do now. Attention must be paid to these quiet heros who have labored all their lives to provide and now appear to be tossed aside. Their responsibilities weigh heavily on their sloping shoulders but they square their back and face the future. Those who remain employed might be tempted to turn their face and ignore them; too close to the bone perhaps. But we should not. We should thank them, respect them and make room for them in our businesses and work places. This we should do.