Courage and Patience / DISCouRSe

"Never think you've seen the last of anything."

Eudora Welty


In this moment, I am choosing

to define Courage as:
the ability to thrive outside of an accepted
and familiar system of being.

For me, this embraces the marvelous
and the heroic.

But, more significantly,
it also recognizes interactions
with the marvelous
and the mundane as
potentially definable acts of courage.

"Towards Sheryl's House - 7:13 AM"© 2010

Watercolor on paper

In this moment, I am choosing to
define Patience as:
the ability to embrace a format of time involvement that transcends
a conventional time construction.

I often pretend that I have all the time in the world. And then, with a quality performance, indeed I do.
Which is not to say that I may squander the Currency.

For second or millennium,
it is all the same.

I cannot be patient with you. Patience is not granted.
I can only make myself available.
Patient.

Courageous.

Hello.

"Untitled"© 1970
Watercolor on paper

Paintings by Tom Schulz

LYRICS FROM THE CHINESE

The gourd has still its bitter leaves,
And deep the crossing at the ford.
I wait my lord.

The ford is brimming to its banks;
The pheasant cries upon her mate.
My lord is late.

The boatman still keeps beckoning,
And others reach their journey's end.
I wait my friend.

Written in B.C. 718
Helen Waddell/ Compiled 1913

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"Defining Patience - DISCouRSe"© 2010

Video Sketch

From "The Systemic Amazement Factorial"©


IMpatience - see if you get a reply.

Next: Courage and Genesis (for Phoebe)

"Courage and Acceptance"

"Some people confuse acceptance with apathy, but there's all the difference in the world. Apathy fails to distinguish between what can and what cannot be helped; acceptance makes that distinction. Apathy paralyzes the will-to-action; acceptance frees it by relieving it of impossible burdens."

Arthur Gordon

I'm not sure that I am able to speak directly to issues of courage and acceptance. What I can do is write a bit about my process of making art. Or of living. The boundaries get blurred in the distinction.
It's a side door approach to the topic. But then, many riches often dwell in the periphery .
As a young man, I aspired to paint a masterpiece, supposing that I, along with the painting, would obtain some historical significance in the completion. And I wasn't overly concerned about the painting's success, if you catch my drift. I became hobbled by the desire, and wandered about in what (at the time) I considered to be an aimless way.

Now I have come to understand that I was gathering information and experience. Eventually, I learned that I had to let go of that adolescent drive before I could even begin to implement that material into what I make as art.

So what does that mean? It means that I have to relinquish control during the process of the making. Which is funny, because my sense of control is primarily illusory. This is not to say that I throw up my hands and submit to some other controlling agency. I respond to beckoning, but most often rail at being lead.
What I prefer is dialogue. Exchange.

Acceptance, then, becomes an active performance of engagement. It calls out for investment. Once a situation or a canvas, an interaction or an armature has been recognized, then acceptance can format itself as a type of surrender into the moment. This is when I become available to participate in the marvelous, especially when the 'conversation' steps beyond the limitations of my preconceived notions.

That participation is a choice.

And if that has anything to do with courage, I'll accept that.

Images:

1. "Water Labyrinth #11"© 2010

Watercolor on paper

2. "Towards Sheryl's House - 7:30 AM"© 2010

Watercolor on paper

Paintings by Tom Schulz

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"Courage to Accept"© 2010

Video Sketch

From "The Systemic Amazement Factorial"©


"The Art of acceptance is the art of making someone who has just done you a small favor wish that he might have done you a greater one."

Martin Luther King, Jr.

NEXT: "COURAGE AND PATIENCE"

"Courage and Change"

We would rather be ruined than changed;
We would rather die in our dread
Than climb the cross of the moment
And let our illusions die.
W.H. Auden

How often do we find ourselves at a crossroad - unsure about which path to take? A simple choice may seem unbearably significant especially as we allow ourselves to become stuck in the intersection.

What can we take on trust in this uncertain life? Happiness, greatness, pride - nothing is secure, nothing keeps.
Euripides, Hecuba

Caution must be employed,
especially as it appears
in the form of
intentional consideration.

Man's yesterday may ne'er be like his morrow;
Nought may endure but Mutability.
Percy Bysshe Shelley

Make that call. Write that letter. Measure once and cut twice. Spill out paint when a brush won't do. Fill the bird feeders. Go see both movies. Move your lips when you read.

Images:

1. "Chaos and Order: Stop"© 2009

Watercolor on paper

2. "Chaos and Order: Caution"© 2009

Watercolor on paper

3."Chaos and Order: Go"© 2009

Watercolor on paper

Paintings by Tom Schulz

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"Trouble With Change"© 2010

Video Sketch

From "The Systemic Amazement Factorial"©

Do you have trouble with change, human?

Next: Courage and Acceptance