"Where you really see life energy, there's consciousness." Joseph Campbell
This quote was chosen a week ago, but today the world is different yet again. 32 young and hopeful students were murdered in Virginia yesterday in a bizarre and senseless act of violence. One individual should not have that power; should not be able to act on a destructive whim to inflict such horrific damage.
Cornell's simple quote is telling, yet my reeling awareness of the situation asks the question: what sort of damaged consciousness would enact such harm? What sort of injury merited such brutal revenge? I'm looking for reasons, as if the world made sense.
How sad, nothing but horribly sad. The dead, the survivors, the families, the institution, the nation. And the issue of nationality… that he was a South Korean, and among the dead were two professors: a Romanian Israeli and an Indian-American. Here in this melting pot, where the chances aren't equal, but nevertheless exist, a young man who presumably came here for opportunity detonated his own. I worry.
And here in our quiet little Vermont the world is a little different as well. Yesterday a storm of historic intensity tore over the Green Mountains into the meandering glacial valley of Otter Creek, wreaking another sort of havoc and devastation. Power lines dangle, green houses are shredded, immense, ancient maples and pines uprooted from the soggy earth. All the while an eerie rainbow hung over the western horizon, shimmering and lovely. Our home is just over the last lingering ridge of the northernmost Taconics, and so we were spared, but Brandon is still without power.
Because in the human spirit hope springs eternal, it is heartening to hear all of the PR about global warming and the environment. Thank you Al Gore, and the Academy Awards. Those of us who labored to build awareness 15 years ago were throwing stones at the Goliaths of the American and global oil cartel. Their pedestal and power base are shattered and crumbling, but we've lost so much time.
Bird Dog now has lovely wings, and a stick in it's mouth. The stick has a nest and a bird perched on the nest. Completely whimsical and silly. Comic relief. Far too much inhalation of fiberglass fumes. But I am inspired to do more, to explore the medium and the possibilities of durable additive form.