Insert Inspirational Cliche Here!

     Against an unlikely landscape of HD quality, the words emerge like beacons to guide you from the crags of insecurity to the well-labeled docks of assurance.  Perhaps this simple aphorism serves to propel you forward with newly discovered intention, to the extent that you must share your gratitude with everyone in the form of a tagline following your pre-programmed email signature.  I share a similar feeling and desire but I hesitate to tag it on because the single declaration that really motivates and inspires me is the following:

    Also, you are not your furniture from IKEA...Chuck Palahniuk's Fight Club is an overflowing wellspring of wisdom.  But back to the matter at hand... masturbation that is, I mean...self-improvement.  We've all done it: made lists, goals, resolutions, etc ad nauseum.  I've devised and implemented multiple strategies including an incentive based system with different point values assigned to various "self-improving" activities.  They were weighted based on the level of effort and commitment: learning a foreign language or traveling to LA to see Magritte's The Treachery of Images in person would garner more points than running five miles or attempting to make paneer out of firm tofu.  But self-improvement, like masturbation to a certain extent, implies a preparation for something else...practice, if you will.
    When I approached a certain numerical age I became acutely and disturbingly aware of the fact that life was not about making preparations anymore, it was about the now (another inspirational quote, this time from John Lennon: "Life is what happens while you're busy making other plans").  There is no more time to practice measures 33-37 because you are on stage now and everyone is watching as you...self-improve.  You are honing your skill and mastering your craft.  This is not to be discouraged but for all the compulsive self-improvers out there like myself it should be undertaken with the awareness of the present moment and a realistic perspective of purpose.  Also, perhaps, self-improvement is better when done as a collaboration.     
    

Life as an Unfortunate Series of Evasions

     When providing medical care to someone, it is extremely important to have an idea of that person's "baseline" so you can appreciate changes to their physical or mental status.  Our baselines change throughout our lives but if we look carefully we can notice a fairly permanent, low-grade suffering that operates in the background like an invincible app, draining our battery.  If you go searching for it, which I wholeheartedly recommend, you may find the pervasive suffering too subtle, in which case I would recommend starting with the suffering of change: we suffer when we meet with undesirable circumstances and we suffer when parting with the desired.  This comprises the backbone of our daily life (symbolized by the dotted line...I'll explain a little later): we miss our bus, we get a flat tire, our friend moves away, etc.   And how do we, as technologically advanced human beings, handle this?  Diversion!  We pick up the phone, turn on the TV, and surf the fake news pipeline.  Being something of a cartophile, I've made a map of our actual path through life (the bolder, black line) as a series of evasions of the dreadful dotted line, from which we hastily retreat if we get too close.  Our lives then become synonymous with our escape routes and we think of that as normal, so much so that the line of evasion becomes our new baseline.

Obviously, visual art is not my specialty.  For real art, go to https://asheralon.deviantart.com/ or your local art museum

    According to the Karmapa , compassion is the default human condition.  I had a difficult time with that concept, especially having just listened to Marina Abramovic's TED Talk in which she described what it was like to perform Rhythm 0, a work of performance art in which she stood for six hours beside a table with seventy-two objects and a note of instruction to the audience to use the objects on her in any way they desired.  Compassion may seem elusive and certainly not our baseline but it logically follows that it should be because of the nature of our shared baseline: suffering.  It is easy to gather observational evidence that suffering is endemic to the human condition; turn on the TV and computer and if you are not affected by the varied afflictions of others then introspectively look into why you turned on those devices in the first place and see if you can locate your dotted line, buried under that soothing cacophony.  As long as we can be receptive to empathy, compassion can and empirically should be our default condition.  It makes the delineation of "self" and "other" very fuzzy.
     People who wouldn't probably characterize themselves as violent took full advantage of Marina Abramovic's invitation in Rhythm 0, to dehumanizing effect.  Objectification desensitizes otherwise rational human beings and allows for the stratification of "self" and "other" which can be overcome by seeing the overlap of our dotted lines, in which case we would not be able to differentiate them at all.

Blame the FitBit? Blame the Fountain!

     Things have resumed their more familiar pace at work, thus accounting for this 'hiatus' of almost a year.  I have acquired a few new objects including my tracking device with a blue LED light that periodically blinks in affirmation of my physical activity.  Today's tally topped ten thousand steps compliments of...brace yourself for cliche...a long walk on the beach (through the water nonetheless - where are my bonus points for added resistance?) and a visit to one of my favorite and very extensive art museums. 

    Ah, the Fountain.  It needs no introduction.  I did not get to view this particular artwork today but the museum does house a nice collection of Duchamp's earlier works that could sit comfortably alongside Gauguin or Cezanne.  It was hard to believe that they came from the brush of the man who would give the Mona Lisa a moustache and pass a urinal off as a Fountain.  Sense no sneer of derision in my voice because Duchamp challenges us to think about what constitutes the hallowed category of objects known as "art" and to do that he must provoke us, thereby fulfilling his aesthetic obligation.  Despite my typical sentiment - if we're not being provoked, we're merely being entertained - I think Duchamp's Fountain gives us an opportunity to feel both in a uniform stream.