This morning we all woke to a world wide environmental crisis. Other crises, sure, yeah, but they stem from the first one. When danger threatens from an uncontrollable source—weather, fire, earthquake, flood—anxiety rises exponentially. There is a biological response. For humans as animals, the biological response is fear. For humans as human, the response is art.
In a culture, there are two periods where a people turn to creating art of all kinds at an astonishing pace: when things flower and when things fall apart. People are usually too busy rebuilding in the period between the second and the first to have leisure for the arts; that’s usually when the specialists take over.
We know what period we’re in right now. And we know what that means we need to do. Search for new ways of being. The first place to start with is actively being kind to everyone around you. That means everyone. Especially the people howling with useless and stupid shouts you vehemently disagree with. That’s their pain bodies howling. We need to just be there, and hope that others are just there when our own pain bodies scream. There is no way forward from the howling until the howling stops. That’s when the healing art begins.
Have a look at all the poetry in this season’s issue if you want to see some art that responds to what’s going on around us. Frederick Pollack’s Harbor. Marissa’s Summer Solstice. Sean Murphy’s The old man on the beach with the metal detector.
Really, truly, read Range Bound by Charlotte McGuinn Freeman. I love Charlotte’s work as she wrestles with the problem of getting a culture back into scale. Trust me, you’ll love her too.
For visuals, the wonderful librarians at the Newport Oregon Public Library host a three part Zoom presentation/confab I’m leading on visionary fiction. The first one is up on YouTube, if you want to get a look. So many EAP members joined in; it was a terrific discussion about where visions are to be found, even in places we are told are the least likely: legends, fairy tales, children’s stories.
Join in the next discussion, 7/20, the third Tuesday of July at 6 pm PST, if you want to add to the conversation on “Looking Back to Look Forward.” We’ll talk Arthurian legends, Charles Williams, what book illustration gives to vision, and of course my own The History of Arcadia series.
Looking forward to it.
Stay safe. And welcome back.