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March 23, 2017: The Writing Life: Making Connections Public

We are as ready for tomorrow’s goat poetry reading/art exhibit as we can be – I had the poems matted at Madd Matters, Betty has had her paintings framed, and we’ve set up a time to put up our work (10 a.m. until noon), and we’ve made time to take down tables and set up chairs (3 p.m. to 5 p.m.). Others are going to use the banquet room in the time in between.

Betty has been down but not out with bronchitis and a cold. She thinks she got it on a recent trip to Israel. I think (as I said in a dispatch a few days ago) that she got it here, from me, and took it with her. I would not be surprised if I heard on the radio that there is a large scale



bronchitis epidemic happening in the holy land. Could be a sign the end is near. But isn’t it amazing how we can now spread germs around the world? Maybe we are too connected.

Betty (right now, because she’s ill) is low energy and most likely just seeing this venture as something else that she’s needing to get done in her altogether too busy life. And she is right. I hope that tomorrow goes well for her and her work is well received. In instances of true friendship, this is what one wants for the other. Me? I just hope that this goes well and is well attended. I am anticipating that 30 or so people will show up.

I feel (as I’ve said before) like I’m drawing upon my MFA training. We didn’t organize exhibits, just readings. But we should have. We should have joined up with the creatives in the art, engineering, and even math departments. (I mean, have you ever thought about the language of math? It has permeated our being.)
So much more can be done when the figurative walls in elementary schools, high schools, and colleges come down. John Dewey repeatedly pointed this out, but not many listened.

Maybe the problem is that we become guarded with about sharing the information we have on hand. The reason is that we become increasingly more fearful about sharing what we have on hand. We fear that we might have to take in more than we think we can comprehend. Our brains then attempt to protect us. The original thought was that if we became all over the map in our thinking that we’d become less “productive” as hunters and gatherers. And productivity of course was and still remains linked to survival.

The concept of hunters and gathers has become gender based. I am not sure if originally the job descriptions were gender defined. I am not going off on a new tangent here (see?) because I want to continue on my earlier tangent. There. Another line of thought that’s connected to creativity. We don’t go off on tangents because we want to learn as much as we can about the given subject matter, that is what’s related to what we already know. What we know is a given. It then feels good to make the seemingly narrowly-based connection. The more tangential connections thus require more of us mentally.

Next: 83. 3/24/17: The Writing Life: Going Public

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