Flying

Sometimes I get to make a picture of something besides classic holiday stuff. Like this bird...

Gearing Up For Window Painting

Got my markers and paint smearing equipment together. Now I'm on a mission to mess up people's windows for this year's holiday season. Yesterday did a really fun Santa on a bike for the Fairfax Cyclery. The guy who owned the store had the novel idea of trying to get more in trade for the cost of his window. So far, nobody has taken the bite, but he got a really nice Santa on the BMX. My apprentice Denise held up the bike while I drew it on the window.

Tomorrow on Friday I'll be taking her to the biggest job I do - the Marina shopping center in San Mateo. There are all kinds of businesses there - mostly small "Mom & Pop" stores such as a bakery, liquor, pharmacy, restaurants and even a barbershop. The place has a decidedly Asian theme, which makes for great lunch breaks. We'll have a great time, and we may even take a few more pictures of how the time got spent that we'll post here.

The hardest job on my plate these days seems to be cleaning out my RV. Unfortunately, somehow I aquired a pet rat who took up residence in the RV while I was gone. The challenge of finding a spot to schlep the stuff in the RV to is being solved by two friends of mine who have given me a place to stay. Thanks Martine and Gino!

There and Back Again

Now, it is November and I've flown off from the Big Island of Hawaii to mainland California since after election day. My objectives are to clean up my act and to paint up windows for the holidays.

Last week, I've already done a holiday window for a game store in Concord, CA. They deemed that having a winter scene with Bilbo Baggins in it would be suitably festive for the holidays. They mused that perhaps the same fantasy scene would do for attracting attention the entire year. This scene is supposed to depict the part of the story where Smaug, after talking with an invisible Bilbo, heads out to destroy the nearby town on the river. This was the first time this year's window painting apprentice got to see me in the mysterious act of drawing on windows.

Evidently, the story by Tolkien of "The Hobbit" is getting some attention in the news. Heard that Peter Jackson, who produced "Lord of the Rings" is going to be in on the production of "The Hobbit," slated to come out at the end of next year. So that's why it's all related and the images from the fantasy are going to be appropriate for the entire year. Hope it works for this game store!

After working, I discovered that next door to the place my apprentice and I were painting was an electronics store called Fry's. Wow, what a candy store. Went into there originally because I needed to replace the hard drive that stopped working on a computer I have that is still in Hawaii. Then I couldn't help but buy a toy which will allow me to create podcasts. (That would be a digital sound recorder.) Then, of course, I also found out that I had to have a little tool that created a USB drive on my older laptop that had been smashed so it didn't work...and on, and on. A hundred bucks later, I made my exit. But, it does means that I will have a way to make podcasts, a desktop computer, and a second laptop working now, whereas before I had only one ancient laptop.

Anyway, maybe this will get you into a festive mood already?

Bittersweet Nostalgia

I get a bittersweet sense lately. As a piece of music that must end at some point, our time together is limited.

Guessing that progress is cumulative in some ways. Maybe it also cyclical? I keep coming around again and again to a rash of activities that I seem to be abandoning at the same time. I drop the threads and pick them up again. Then I come around to the other things I dropped again and again.

Author Barbara Sher would say that I'm a scanner.

Perhaps this longing in me comes from words being sequential - we can't say it all at one time because we don't have the shorthand concepts to encompass it all in entirety. So we can only discuss pieces of the whole story, the whole life.

Used to think that I could bring someone I knew up to speed on my life - to fill them in on what has been happening. I'm beginning to realize that I can never do that. I've experienced too much.

Reminds me of the story called "Smoke of Memories" written by Jorje Borges about a young boy who has decided to isolate himself; he wants no more experiences because he has a photographic memory and his mind has filled up to the brim.

When Is Selling Manipulative?

I prefer to be honest about as what a person is "selling" to another. For instance, "Wouldn't you want to.....?" These actions of "selling" are, in a sense, manipulative. Manipulation is, at it's best, the ability to create a desire for an experience. The ultimate value of the experience is, of course, determined by the user.

Of course, permission is implied, as in the teacher/student relationship or in the forms of the assault of advertising. People understand that others have to make a living, so they listen to their "pitch" about the
value of what is being sold. People in business attempt to create a "NEED" for their services. Students buy courses orchestrated by teachers.

In our culture, the more someone must pay for an experience, the more they tend to value it. In some forms of manipulation, permission is disregarded to the point of coersion. There's a fine line between implied permission and coersion.

For me - when this permission gets violated, it really upsets me. Makes me wonder when or how I agreed to it so I can use whatever power I have to retract that permission.

Fear of No Money

There's lots of concern about a lack of money in my culture lately. Lots of people are reluctant to spend their money. Credit is tight. There are many other stories that seem to be anticipating horror and paranoia that supposedly is going to happen. So I'd like to tell you a story about the first time I thought I might have to borrow some money in my distant past.

What happened, circa 1977, was that it was a Friday. I had just written a check to my prospective landlord for first and last and a security deposit to rent a place that would hit my checking account on Monday. The problem was, that the amount was $361. more than I had in the bank.

I wasn't worried. I guessed that someone I knew personally would loan me the money over the weekend because I had never asked my friends for a loan before. Money was coming to pay it back as soon as the job that I was working on was done, which was a matter of days. The sum was pocket money for a few of the people I knew. I had always been careful at managing my finances and had started my business by building it from nothing, without ever needing credit.

At the time I was working as a sign maker. I was putting the finishing touches on a sign the proprietor had specified belonged on an old, hardwood mantelpiece at the Pelican Inn in Muir Beach over the fireplace. A dremmel tool was how the letters were being carved out. It's a tiny drill with a bit of a certain shape on the end of it that I was using to shape the letters.

Well, that day, the bit finally wore out and all the letters were not done yet. Calling the hardware stores nearby, they all said they had dremmel bits. But I had to go to three stores before I found the right shape. All this running around had to be done by hitchhiking, because my car had stopped working the day before.

So, after some trouble, finally I come to the hardware store where the right bit shape was available. They ask me what was the specific shape used for what purpose. I told them about the job I was finishing. After hearing what I had to say, they expressed an interest in having new signs on their window. So I sat down and drew up their order. At that time, my estimate process was codified; pricing was figured by the standing inch per letter.

The total came to $361. I had the job done and installed by Sunday. The cash to cover the check I had written was in the bank on Monday.

As I was gilding the letters that I had finished carving out on Monday, it was then I reflected how curiously relevant the content of the sign over the mantelpiece had been to my experience over the weekend.

It happened to say:

Fear knocked at the door. Faith answered. No one was there.

Creative Thinking While Angry (or Self Involved)

Anger is an intense emotion. Anger is an emotion that most people would not really prefer to keep hold of for very long because it results in fight or flight reactions and if kept indefintely, health problems. Comparatively, self-stroking of ego is much more self-deceptive because it is pleasurable.

So - is it possible to actually think, problem solve and come up with something new if you're in the throes of anger or self-involvement?

Perhaps it's the self-deception that is the culprit in itself, not which emotion, pastime or action a person is blighely engaging in?

To relate it to the above, it's coercion itself that seems objectionable to me in this case. Not the subject about which the fascistic application is taking place. If these two are not congruent and the person has forgotten to "Keep their Eyes On the Prize", then you have something such as; "OK everyone, you all there just be having fun now or I will kick your ass!" Or the common parental problem of a distinct lack of imagination, "Stop crying or I'll give you something to cry about!"

However, my point: With quite a bit of practice, I learned to learn to creatively problem solve while also being angry. It happened because I was challenged to do so repeatedly without the usual characteristic of defensive self-preservation being a feature. If I did it, I know it's possible for others to do.

From this personal experience, I know that it's possible to marry precluding "opposing" characteristics so that having and either/or is not necessary. You can have both, and sometimes you can have it all - up to a point...IF - (and this is the big conditional deal-breaker If,) if you train the skills that are needed to make it happen.

Now I know this is unusual, because in most people, the intensity and the nature of the emotion will shut down the ability to creatively problem solve. People who are angry in this way are similarly blinded to people
who are "masturbating their ego". People can be distracted by being absorbed in any habitual state - emotional, physical, mental. People get distracted by the status quo. They space out and miss stuff they're not anticipating that could be useful, because it's not what they expect.

So - perhaps the ability to STOP, PREVENT, SUSPEND is the crucial one activity that is CRUCIAL to model. Whatever the habit that is in place, in the way of flexbility is the ability to respond to circumstance appropriately.

Granted that "I" "I" "I" "I" "I" "I" is a really strong habit in some people, but there are many strong habits just as important - if not MORE important to suspend as that one. A style of assault coersion is MUCH more dangerous habit than the "I" "I" "I" "I" "I" one.

But I guess the relative importance of it depends on if you have someone around you who is doing one of these that you can't get rid of - it's a little poisonous to have to deal with a person who constantly wants attention who is not a child.

Why Surrender?

We're talking about the idea that, in order to observe, the nature of observation needs to be free of the quality that you are in the act of observing.

I can think of exceptions in my own experience for this statement. Granted, it's tricky to do, but these characteristics are not mutually exclusive. Otherwise how would we use the mind to observe itself? How
would be be able to observe at all if we could not articulate some of the differences that make a difference - no matter if we are trapped within them or not?

Why is being free a prerequisite? The ability to observe, creatively problem solve or to stop or replace a habit that you don't want for whatever reason is a skill. The nature of skills is that these abilities can be learned and sharpened. Granted, it takes practice. Practice is more effective in the context of when and how you would like to use a skill. It takes the capacity to imagine an advantage to go to the trouble of bothering to train the skill.

Now, the next question that begs is: what could be the advantages of surrendering continuous self-referent activity - in that it may even be a pleasurable activity that someone would want to continue?

For me surrendering self-referent activity is a social advantage. I'm able to imagine what someone else might experience and become able to establish rapport and connection with them.

For someone else who is not particularly after personal connection, perhaps this ability might be the ability to act as a channel for art or psychic prediction. The ability to surrender self-reference could mean to the person some sort of livelihood advantage related to the cultivation of a skill.

For instance, if for some reason you thought you might like to surf, it wouldn't do you much good to think that the ocean is out to punish you and how dangerous it is - it's more constructive if you realize that there are factors of balance and skill to uncover that you would need to practice and learn about the nature of what it takes to surf. Of course, you would have never learned to swim because you have to surrender fears generated by self-involvement...unless you have a good teacher.

This implies that there could be an attraction coming from the lack of something - perhaps the ability to turn off repeating nuisances of internal talk that spin someone into depression would be a great advantage? These are the benefits - the payoffs. Different strokes for different folks sorts of things.

I'm sure people could think of more of these - and I'd like to hear 'em.

Communicating Humility While Writing

Ok, talking about motives. Going after one preference over another means that someone would be making the selection because of getting a certain payoff from it, right? No matter what the payoff, correct? The payoff could be a paragon of personal martrydom or another one of the rainbow of motives. It's whatever gets you off, so to speak. Different strokes for different folks. The payoff is still some sort of a motive that drives the definition of value of making the selection.

To be honestly self-referent, the payoff I get from writing about thinking is immense, actually. I don't know why this is true, but it motivated me to learn to write in order to do this very thing I'm doing now.

The medium is important, not the massage, ah..er.. the message. The WAY something is done is often overlooked. If I wanted to pound in a message the way DonL likes to pound in his message of how arrogant and self-deceptive the "I" "I" "I" "I" "I" action is, it would be that one. But I don't like to pound, because I regard repetition as a disrespectful tactic of advertising. Guess that is also why I find it distasteful to "sell" what I feel is valuable.

Why can't people just GET that these things are valuable and take the value of what I have to offer them? Why do I have to SELL what I feel is valuable? Why don't people just look at me and figure out they could be as deliriously happy as me if they'd just...

I guess because people would never otherwise have a clue that the value even exists.

The connection between the medium being congruent with the message defines the level of effectiveness. If they match, the message is related in a much more powerful fashion. (This is, in a nutshell, what is the defintion of ART for me.) The way the selection process is communicated (or imposed on others) is important - not the content of the selected value.

Gawd, I feel like a salesperson sometimes when I write this stuff.

For me, putting "I" before something or using qualifiers such as IMHO, etc. means that it's coming from just little old me. That what is being said not the BIG TRUTH with a CAPITOL "T" - I'm not puffed up into wanting to define the nature of life, the universe and everything.

Funny, huh? I regard the use of "I" to indicate a directly opposite evidence that of how DonL regards it. Don believes that writing without the "I" is evidence of less egotism. For me, the humble use of "I" implies a lack of arrogance, a lone voice in the wilderness speaking from the point of view of one person's experience - one person who speaks only for themselves and not the Royal WE of those who have empowered me to represent them.

Because one person talking doesn't imply the puffed-up importance of defining the absolute FACT of The Way Things Are. That's how it comes across to me when the "I" is left out of what is being expressed. I think that it deceptively hides the content as if it is "fact" when it is only merely someone's opinion.

Why Did I Do That?

Do people do things for negative reasons?
I used to imagine they do. I used to think I did. But now as I have come to watch myself and others, I don't think that is the case.

What someone chooses to do, their choices may have negative consequences. It can be argued in many cases that people are a product of their conditioning - their own, environmental and parental, etc. So they don't really have a choice. But, (as far as I can tell,) everyone chooses an action (or lack of it) because of its positive aspects, not the negative ones.

Often the choice is not so wise, or the selection doesn't take crucial things into account that should have been obvious to the person. Even more commonly, the person feels as if they "must" make the choice for various justified points that they are aware are negative. Such as choosing between two evils, such as what we have to do so often when we vote. Sometimes people are aware of the negative aspects, but they decide the costs are "worth it," possibly because sometimes the costs are deferred until "later." Some people like to gamble and play the odds, imagining they won't be the one to suffer the common consequences.

I quipped lately, when in the presence of a friend of mine who is a confirmed drinker, (alcoholics go to meetings) that has more time than a smoker to change her ways, because drinkers live much longer than drinkers who smoke.

Most often, I think what happens when people make what later turns out to be a "negative" choice -- it's that their priorities changed somewhere along the line. They got trapped. Sometimes they forgot to consult all the priorities, or to even realize they might have had priorities at all.

It's as though, sometimes, we are a multitude of shifting priority. Not every priority is present at every moment. So it's possible to make a decision that caters and answers to one particular member of the multitude of priorities, and forget a crucial one that got left out. Guess this is where the ideas of the subconscious came from.

Some of the time, nobody can anticipate the sum total of how things will turn out. So it's not possible sometimes to know how a particular choice will affect things on down the line. You just have to find out, and change things as you go.

Advice for Problem Solving

Had an ex who tended to add up his distresses that separately were merely a little annoying and together turned into a landslide. In typical Drama Queen style, he would use the process to completely re-evaluate his life, and jump immediately to make the changes, usually to its detriment. Although your problems are more serious than contrived, when things that are bothering you begin to pile up, it's very tempting to add them together - and then your mind ranges from thing to thing in a horrendous circle of "Queen for a Day" sort of way.

Things have a way of working themselves out in the wash. What will happen, happens - and then you can decide what you are going to do about them. I would want to plan the whole thing ahead of time, but sometimes you need to act to get somewhere before you can stand on the previous steps to see the step ahead. Now for myself, I have come to regard worrying as a signal that I need to goad myself to act in some way - that I really care about outcomes and I'm not doing anything about them. Also realize that it's a significant challenge to come up with creative solutions when you are thinking in terms of survival issues.

Taking a cue from the example of the ex, creative solutions come to me easier if I address the fact that I'm upset first and do things that I know will spell effective indulgence and "mini-vacations" for me personally. Once I'm in a much better state - fed, watered, pain-free, comforted, bathed, calm, etc. then I think of my "problems" with a pen in hand and a big piece of paper for a "mind-map" to get everything out. Writing for me helps with stopping the cycling around over and over of the same issues in my brain. Then once they are out on paper, I can stop thinking about them incessantly. It may be another activity besides writing that allows you to "clear your mind" and see the situation with a more objective eye - but perhaps you can make this approach work for you.

Without committing myself to a course of action, also you might do some research about ways that other people have dealt with the same problems. You might access others who seem to have some creative ideas about your issues at http://globalideasbank.org/site/home/ which is a website with interesting ideas about how to solve social problems.

Perhaps check out Edward de Bono's creative thinking techniques outlined in his books.
For instance, if it's a decision such as "do I move to where my parent is, or do I move my parent in with me?" - might do a Consequences PMI - make separate lists for the positive, negative and Interesting parts of what could happen, given however many certain possible circumstances.

Anyway - my intent here is just to open up possible solutions for you that you can do for yourself. From what I'm reading, it sounds as if you are allowing the circumstances to run you around instead of exploring how you may be able to influence them. There's sometimes only so much that you can do about certain situations, and then your only option is to wait and ask yourself if there will be consequences to putting off making decisions once the outcomes are there. Helps to be able to anticipate the point of no return when the decision will be made for you unless you act, so you know when your options are closing down.

Good luck!

Fostering Acquaintanceships

I'm not a loner.

I meet so many people that I want to stay in touch for some reason or another. Have learned that I MUST keep track of this reason, or I will lose the thread that connects me to them. So have learned to write down with their contact information what it is that we talked about or why I should get back in touch with them again.

Great relationships are made and not found. For me, finding people is somewhat like thrift store shopping in that you meet the person and then find a use for them in your life or visa versa. For me, the essence of relationships is reciprocal - doing something for people and accepting what people have to offer me.

Have a sense that the world is filled with people who have something to offer me, and lately more often, the other way - I have something to offer them. So, the trouble is finding out what this offering is, exactly, in the time we have to spend together.

Sometimes, find myself rising to the occasion using an unreliable brand of psychic ability and guessing. It works amazingly well. Somehow I can establish rapport with quite a few people in the world as I run into them, even though people can be so unique and nobody seems to take the time in this era to develop relationships with people.

I think there is a big need for lots of new words describing relationships. There are so many unique relationships in the world that are lumped together under the heading of "friendships, " or "lover-ships," or "acquaintanceships." The traditional words don't really describe the rainbow of subtlety that is there in all those categories.

More on this later....

Ego and Making Art

My personal experience as a young person was of being someone who had very little identity or ego. I seemed to not be able to put aside my ego/identity because it wasn't formed enough yet to purposefully influence. For me it was almost as if giving up ego was so natural and irresistible, that I was not in control of purposefully suspending it or using my ego - there wasn't much difference I could sense between one action and its "opposite". It wasn't until I could sense what "I" wanted as a separate ability as I gradually developed a sense of self - that I was able to put this ego sense of self aside purposefully.

I believe that, as an artist, suspension of ego "just happens" in the process of being the conduit to the image coming through. Art was my first ability that I spent quite a bit of time doing, so this is probably partly why I had a natural talent to merge and blend and give up ego.

What made it imperative that I develop an ego was to be able to communicate in relationships with people. Previous to that ability being developed, I was very successful in guessing what people wanted me to do and doing it before I realized I was responding to someone else's desires or goals for me. Strangely enough, I would experience their desire as my own - but I was "shape-shifting" as I later decided to call it.

This ability of mine was so exaggerated that it was almost to the point of freaking people out. Because I would "read their mind" successfully without being told in an eerie psychic fashion, showing up at their doorstep unannounced when needed with the right stuff in my hands for helping them, and so forth.

Wow - it's really raining here right now. Sounds like I'm right next to a stream.

In the late seventies, Psychology Today, (an American magazine which is still published) did a survey to find out if the training and schooling that psychologists were getting was actually resulting in "good psychologists." Recent graduates from various programs and universities were interviewed by top psychologists and evaluated for their suitability for the field. Turns out that those people who were trained in art were considered to make the best psychologists by this study.

Having been to art school myself, I can see how this happened. Art makes a person more sane, partly because of a suspended "ego-less" sort of conduit sensation that people commonly experience while making art.

Historic Egolessness Related to Shape-shifting

My personal experience of being someone who had very little identity or ego as a young person. I seemed to not be able to put aside my ego/identity because it wasn't formed enough yet to purposefully influence. For me
it was almost as if giving up ego was so natural and irresistible, that I was not in control of purposefully suspending it or using my ego - there wasn't much difference I could sense between one action and its "opposite". It wasn't until I could sense what "I" wanted as a separate ability as I gradually developed a sense of self - that I was able to put this ego sense of self aside purposefully.

I believe that, as an artist, suspension of ego "just happens" in the process of being the conduit to the image coming through. Art was my first ability that I spent quite a bit of time doing, so this is probably partly why I had a natural talent to merge and blend and give up ego.

What made it imperative that I develop an ego was to be able to communicate in relationships with people. Previous to that ability being developed, I was very successful in guessing what people wanted me to do and doing it before I realized I was responding to someone else's desires or goals for me. Strangely enough, I would experience their desire as my own - but I was "shape-shifting" as I later decided to call it. This ability of mine was so exaggerated that it was almost to the point of freaking people out. Because I would "read their mind" successfully without being told in an eerie psychic fashion, showing up at their doorstep unannounced when needed with the right stuff in my hands for helping them, and so forth.

Now That I'm Situated...

Got a sweet place to live in Honoka'a, which is on the north end of the Big Island - away from the dreadful VOG that is haunting most of the south coast. A really nice person shares the house. There's even a breezy ocean view through the ohia, banana and the Autograph tree!

Hope some of my friends come and visit, now that I have a guest room for them... So - c'mon, fly to Hawaii this summer! Bring a top-sheet or light blanket, it's about 80 degrees daytime, 70 degrees at night...we have a double futon, a massage table or camp cot reserved for you. The house is only a block and a half from "Honoka'a town," which is about the size of Stinson Beach and Bolinas combined. The butcher shop is superb. So is the Farmer's fresh food stand and the Asian food store and the Market. There are two world-class restaurant and a bargain one. A library, a movie theater, a pharmacy, a credit union and bank...and a pool - are all within five blocks from home base. So far I think it's a great place.

Managed to buy a '91 4WD Subaru Legacy station wagon with only 120,000 miles on it for only $1200, which was less than it would have cost to ship and register my own car. Fixed up a free ancient Toshiba laptop so it's functional to get back online by buying some cheap RAM. Got the DSL turned on and it's only a little slower than cable. Ordered the refills for the color printer. Teaching some private lessons in Alexander Technique to nearby astute students. Looking for more work...a "good enough" job would be great.

There's a ten year old "Tortie" kitty Diva who already lives on the property. Her name is "Bizkits" - because her favorite thing to do is to sit in your lap and paw you while she's purring and padding. Kitties aren't allowed inside our house because our landlady is allergic to kitties and has provided these beautiful rugs for us to use. So the cat has learned already to jump up onto this outside porch, sitting and waiting politely for me to come out and pet her each evening when she hears our voices. She is an amazingly sweet kitty who doesn't even call out to announce herself, just waits for me to notice her.

Am about to learn how to SKYPE with the Magic Jack, so I'll let you know about that when I get enough savvy to call you - wherever in the world you are... So let me know your phone number so I can call you for free! You don't even need a SKYPE account - I'll be able to call land lines and even some mobile phones.

Let me know you're there! I'm sort of lonely these days because I don't have many friends yet in Honoka'a.