"Summeries #11"

“It is not that I’m so smart.

But I stay with the questions much longer.”
Albert Einstein

So another season has shifted into another season, and we bid adieu to the "Summeries". Time is a grazing creature. Tonight, as my compatriot and I were cruising our haunts, we saw a group of perhaps seven gathered in the street. It appeared that they were pointing at us. I cautioned you as to the likelihood that they were Flesh Eating Zombies. Autumn brings them out, don't you know. I read somewhere that it has to do with the Puritan Ethic. Approaching, it was clear that this group was more positively animated than the Undead. "You walked right past them!" one Zombie declared. "One what?," I queried (in my nascent comprehension of the situation's significance). "Deer," replied the Zombie (who somehow lost her looming nature, given the street light and proximity). We turned, you and I. We turned and saw a two point buck and the doe that followed. And us one point five miles from downtown (now uptown) and the bank centers and NASCAR museum. And that sighting made us hopeful somehow. That in the midst of executions and demonstrations and Luddite yearnings, and urban sprawl and oiled interdependence and errant values could there wander a deer. And its companion.
Like us. Walking together. Sniffing and pondering.

“Actualized Dreams” #28.

So once again, ladies and germs: the same brick wall, the same scenario, the same set of circumstances. Maybe different colors. Certainly a new cast of characters (though one might argue that its different masks on the same troop of itinerant actors). But it was you that said, "You have to rearrange - you have to penetrate the system - and move beyond a single reality into the realm of possibilities". Sage advice.…..good times.
Key notation: April 20th. Sheila as teacher

“Actualized Dreams” #29.

You wrote a poem, I made a reference. You said, “The sun applied lipstick to the pursed lips of the horizon.” I had a bourbon. It reminded me of my mother. You wrote some lyrics and hummed the tune softly. I made a cryptic remark, but kept it to myself. We travel well together, the two of us. You and I…..good times.
Key Connective Concept:Stockholmes sin/drone

“Actualized Dreams” #30.

You constantly remind me to choose my battles. You ask me things like, "Is this a ditch you are willing to die in?" That always reminds me of the origin of the phrase, 'three on a match' and snipers and stuff, cause things remind me of other things. Like when you said someone was, "growing in grace" and all I heard was "groin in grace" and you said that my mind was like a bowling ball - always in the gutter. I guess it's all about knowing what to overlook. Yeah…..good times.
Key Location: Spiral notebook

All work by Tom Schulz, unless otherwise noted.

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"The God and The Universe Conversations". Week Eleven.

“We have to relax the spiritual cramp which knots us
in the painful “I” that is all we know as ourselves.”
Thomas Merton

UNTO US, ALL IS GIVEN

Tomschulzartist

Today's Editorial: "On Justice and Righteousness and Empathy"

Milton and Bernice have been stopping by my house over the years. Primarily as the temperature turns off cold. Milton is a veteran and Bernice is deaf. Milton and Bernice have made some poor life decisions over the years. Over the years, I have given them directions to certain social services and given countless gifts of twenty dollar bills to help assuage their various hungers and needs. It's not much, all in all. But it is something. I have listened to their stories. Their stories have remained constant in that they include a downward spiral that has left them bereft of much of their dignity. But the years and circumstances have not yet stolen the all of who they are. They are sad. And orphaned by their choices. Milton has cancer. Bernice has no heat. Where is their ladder that will help them climb up out of adversity? They just want that ladder.

Posted Direct from the Spidey-Hole.


"My heart and my mind, fill with peace."


"Water Labyrinth #11"© 2010

“Unbounded Extension”

“The Universe is experiencing great joy in this moment!" exalted The Universe.
"That experience of The Universe's impacts God in such a favorable way", purred God.

"Really?" grinned The Universe. (Oh yes, The Universe can grin). "Sweet."

"For Unto us a Son is Giv'n."

"King"
Tokyo - based Artist Isaac Schulz

“Symbolic Transference”

“Here's a question for God", started out The Universe. "What happens when an Entity perishes?"
"Good one, The Universe", responded God. “In the sense that time is perpetually perishing, an Entity has perished when it is complete."
"But then God is saying that an Entity is always at the same Time Becoming and Perishing?" asked an incredulous The Universe.

"That is precisely what God is saying", said God precisely. "And that is what God refers to as an Entity with spatial needs."

"The increase of his government
And peace shall never end."

Albert Einstein on World Peace


THE READING

"In the newness of the world God was a young man, and grew indignant over the slightest thing. In the newness of the world God had perhaps not Himself realized the ramifications of His Laws, for example, that shock will spend itself in waves; that our images will mimic every gesture, and that shattered they will multiply and mimic every gesture ten, a hundred, or a thousand times. Cain, the image of God, gave the simple earth of the field a voice and a sorrow, and God Himself heard the voice, and grieved for the sorrow, so Cain was a creator, in the image of his Creator."

Marilynne Robinson "Housekeeping" 1980

This concludes Week Eleven of
"The God and The Universe Conversations".

All art and writing by Tom Schulz unless otherwise noted, or unless it is so cool
he will try to get away with claiming it as his own.

"Remembering the Past Experiment. Week Three"

"There is not past, no future;
everything flows in an eternal present."

James Joyce (1882-1941)

“Reaching Past”

I find it interesting that the collage was “invented” at the same time that Einstein was thinking about train whistles and clocks. Cause that is what the Past is like for me - some wacky montage of errant tumbleweeds with no determinable point of departure or arrival.

All aboard.

“Commanomaly / Conjoined”

In retrospect, hindsight seems backwards. I have discovered substantial comfort in aligning those categories that I have heretofore surmised as being disparate.

“Origin of Constellations”

Some folks believe that God created the Heavens and the Earth in six days and rested on the seventh. Which doesn’t make much sense to me for two reasons: 1.) God would never allow Herself to be rushed, when there were so many details to arrange. And B.) Why go to all that trouble and just take off one day? It would hardly be worth the effort.

“1487?”

I have begun to emulate Estes Burrell, from the tree farm. What I am doing of a day, I now do of a night, too. If I saw wood of a day, then I saw wood of a night. If I get stuck in some conundrum of a day, I’ll mire up in the mud to the axle of a night.

“Stylist____Jackie_____”

There is no single moment that bears the weight of radical novelty. We each of us attach significance to time like an ornament on a Christmas Tree. An appointment for a haircut. Time spent reading Heidegger. Or time spent thinking of you.

Next: Perhaps "The Mechanics of Crepe Myrtle". We'll see. One never knows. These things take on a time frame of their own.

"Life Strategy 1: Intention"

There is no logical path to these laws; only intuition, resting on sympathetic understanding of experience, can reach them. "

Albert Einstein, "Principles of Research", 1918

"Morel Fabric" © (detail) 2009

In our last chapter, we came to the realization that as each of us has come to master Transformation in our lives, we are contrite not to ask the inevitable question, "Now what?"
In this chapter, we will aspire to actualize Life Strategy 1. Life Strategy 1. involves intention.

"Things to Forget"© 2008
From "The Spidey-Hole Series"

As so often happens after Transformation, one may find themselves at odds with life as they have previously known it. Do not be alarmed. Let me repeat: do not be alarmed. Transformation has effectively shattered your reality. At the risk of appearing overly dramatic, we may even describe this momentous event as "explosive" (or even "implosive" depending on your personal experience and leanings).

Press Arrow to Play Video.

"Cautionary Tale"© 2010

Video Sketch

From "The Systemic Amazement Factorial"©

Existing models of perception will most certainly become now, not only obsolete, but cumbersome, and yes, in some circumstances - dangerous. At this juncture, one should necessarily implement Life Strategy 1., Intention. If you find yourself currently acting without any clear intention as to what form your thoughts or actions are taking, now would be a good time to change that approach. Good luck with that.

"No Discernable Purpose"(sic) 2010
from "The Brilliant Notebook Project" ©

Please join us for our next chapter, entitled "Life Strategy 2: Manifest."
Until then, please practice your understanding of this chapter, especially as you wait in the grocery line. And people? Be safe.

All art on this page by Tom Schulz. Contact Tom@empathinc.com with comments or inquiries.

Albert Einstein, Robert Oppenheimer, Tom Schulz

The optimist thinks this is the best of all possible worlds. The pessimist fears it is true.
J. Robert Oppenheimer

"Interferometer" 2008

From "The Systemic Amazement Factorial"©

When I draw or paint from a still life, or a model, I realize that every time I look away from the subject: I am working from memory.
The subject ceases to be real (in the sense of the 'realness' I am attempting to portray).

"Fractal Fireflies #14"© 2009

From The "Spidey-Hole Series, Fractal Fireflies Subset"

This is how I most often get lost in my way.

"PATH"© 2008
From "The Brilliant Notebook Codex"

"An understanding of a new relatedness will arrive, I believe, the more we come to recognize the entity which I call the self, or I,
lying within matter,
Lying within ourselves,
Lying, above all,
in the special relatedness between ourselves and living structure."

"Fractal Fireflies #13"© 2009

From The "Spidey-Hole Series, Fractal Fireflies Subset"

"It will arrive, because the existence of this entity I call the "I" can be confirmed by experience, and it will - I believe - one day become part of physics, part of our understanding
of the material universe,
which
reunites self and matter.
ourselves
with the world."

"The Nature of Order: an Essay on the Art of Building and The Nature of the Universe"
Book Four
The Luminous Ground.
Christopher Alexander