Why are you still carrying her?

Zen Buddhist story of the day:


Two monks are walking from one monastery to another. Along the way they cross paths with a wealthy woman who is rude to them. They meet up with her party again at the river, where she clearly needs assistance to get across. The older monk offers to carry her across the water and at some risk to himself in the swirling waters, he gets her across. She doesn’t even say thank you properly, and leaves. The two monks continue walking for a few more hours until the younger one bursts out ‘how rude that woman was, first she didn’t acknowledge us properly and then she didn’t thank you after you carried her across the waters.’ And the older monk looked at him and replied, ‘I put her down hours ago, why are you still carrying her?’

Ah those elder monks.. always so wise!
 
(I couldn't find an image of a monk wading across a river,  but loved this misty one so included it.  I love how their saffron bright robes contrast with the surroundings)

Thoughts on Change

I was reading somewhere (who knows where, I read so many blogs and magazines and books, I really lose track) Anyways, I read that people’s memory today is appalling compared to those of trained folk in ancient Greek. Then actors, who were not always literate, could recall and declaim verses thousands of lines long. Today, we can barely remember the lyrics to an entire song, but we can find them, with two clicks on our iphone. In Holland, their high school graduates are being tested not on knowledge, but on access. They go into the test with all their computers and gadgets and then are given a topic about which they know nothing, and are timed to research and create a paper/discussion about it. I think that’s what future knowledge is going to be – not memory but access. I look at my son, all of 12, who checks on his phone what rating a restaurant received, and then matches his experience against the Zagat numbers, to see if he agrees or not. No one needs to remember phone numbers any more, we just press contacts and the name pops up. Even with Kindle, (which I just got and love, but more of that another day) my main problem with it is in the recall system – it relies on me remembering a book just by the title - without cover or blurb; and the title is rarely enough for me to remember the book. Sometimes it is, but not a new author, or a series author (I don’t know which Prey book is which, the titles are meaningless to me there.)

 So I think the future is all about knowledge and access. Stories that made sense even 25 years ago, don’t make sense anymore (he moved away so she couldn’t find him.. in today’s world, she could search for 30 mins on google and there he would be) People can aggregate around the weirdest/most poignant issues – read Sufi poets in a Midwestern town of 600? I can find you 600 likeminded friends, only a chat room away. As we become more and more individual in our quirks and needs, we are less and less alone, finding people just like us no matter where we (or they) live.

And I like that. This is change I can live with. You can buy the clothes you like, the books you like, even the food you like (steaks? Marshmallows? And williams Sonoma site will send you the most amazing things) You can find the information you need and the people like you,  and without being limited by geography.

Beading Frenzy

I've written about this a long time ago,  but a few years ago I found the perfect storm of hobbies for me - combining my love of color from make up and my love of small sugary tempting things from sweets - beads!  I love beads,  the potential that each bead has to create something amazing.  And this week,  I went on a beading frenzy,  creating 4 beautiful (imho) necklaces,  using my beads for the first time this year (very bad!)  When ever I go to a beading show (there are 2 of them a year in nyc) I shop very carefully,  making sure I don't go crazy, and when ever I get home,  I wonder why I didn't let myself buy more!  So here are some not great photos of my work this week:

this one is my current favorite, a nd took forever!  I think I worked on it for over 4 hours  but I'm very happy with it.

these are honey colored pearls, which make a very dramatic collar necklace

these are all very soft pink shades which the camera kind of washed out,  but looks very feminine and pretty.

and these are a gorgeous lavender blue rondell, with Italian glass accent beads.  I'm sorry the color didn't come out so well in these pictures!

and finally this is the one DS designed and strung,  very classic.

I also photographed some older stuff that I have made,  but I'll put them up another day,  the computer is being tricky and doesn't appear to like having so many images uploaded...

But busy and productive times!