“What a grind sometimes”
Single Word
Art and Text
I will be forever grateful to Pamela Lanza and her brilliant “Voice and Vision” class at SFAI in summer 2010. This class was a catalyst for embracing myself as an artist and discovering my love for text in art. Since then, I’ve artistically played with single words like Oops, SHH, and multiple ones, often repeated and layered. This has been and continues to be a fascinating, expressive exploration.
The words spawned from a moment when something was bothering me and I wanted to release it. Someone advised to just “flick it away”.
Positive Step Forward
Basketball And Officiating
Watching the Warriors/Clippers playoff game last night, at one point early on Draymond Green, who typically contests each ruling, angrily confronted a referee. Later, Patrick Beverley from the Clippers did the same. Now, I do believe that Stephen Curry gets knocked all around the court and doesn’t get his fair share of calls in his favor; however, it really is tiring and scary to witness the friction.
A couple of weeks ago while driving, I tuned into a local sports radio show just in time to hear a conversation between the host and guest, Mychel Thompson, an L.A. radio commentator and father of Klay. Mychel was asked what he thought about the relationship between players and referees. His response was to say that years ago when he was a rookie player, there was a well-known, undisclosed star player who disputed a call. The referee then retorted, “Shut-up you big baby and play the game!”
In addition to being right on point and humorous, hearing this has served me. When I periodically slip into reviewing my history and/or complaining about something, I tell myself to shut up and deal with it. And, then I laugh and laugh hard at the absurdity of life as a human and sometimes weird ways we each try to figure it out.
Synchronicity
Admittedly, this seems to have been dormant as of late. Perhaps because of winter and being more sedentary, perhaps because of the positioning of the planets in my chart, perhaps because I’ve been in judgement of and resistance to conditions of my life and/or perhaps because I’ve been in impatience of reaping “the fruits of my labor” after a transitional and often grueling 10 year period.
I’m reflecting on this as a result of what happened yesterday morning. I hired a new handyman and, after greeting me with a big smile, upon entering, he took notice of the art highly praising it and asking if I was a collector. I said yes and also I am an artist and what he was looking at was my art. We diverged quickly from the list of items that needed fixing and engaged in a conversation about art, music and the topic of salons. Turns out his partner organizes monthly salons for musicians and artists and, unexpectedly, I readily received an invitation for this weekend. So, in addition to getting my place in tip top shape, I was offered an opportunity to widen my network. Very cool, and I feel grateful.
This American Life
Captivated, I sat in my car listening to the 4/7 episode “No Fair!” on this public radio show. The subjects were precious preschoolers using a “tattle phone” to express what they thought was unfair; in essence, at a young age having a sense of injustice. Each child had something different to say. Universal message and quite good!
Crissy Field
Capping off a walk/run, I sat on my favorite rock on Sunday after a 4-year absence. During my toughest times between 2009 and 2014, this rock in the right forefront, as part of the beautiful scenery, provided strength and a place to perch when asking for Divine assistance and perspective. To my eye, it somewhat resembles a butterfly.
Oops
With “the grabs”, this comes into play yet again. Excitedly gearing up for a show and conversation.
The Grab - 2
On the heels of Grab 1, here comes Grab 2. My neighbors and I found out the Mayor is proposing the largest “temporary” (4 year) homeless navigation center/shelter in our area along prime Embarcadero waterfront property. Mind you, even though the mayor emphatically states that all neighborhoods need to share in this, it’s my District that has the bulk of homeless shelters and low income housing. There are no shelters or associated plans in super tony Presidio Heights, Pac Heights, Russian Hill, etc. (Gosh, as human beings, we certainly do contradict ourselves!) Anyway, to further exacerbate the situation, she declared an “Emergency”, Washington, D.C.-esque, and, along with the Board of Supervisors, passed Fast-Track Legislation to push these centers through; essentially eliminating public outreach and due process, health and safety permits, environmental studies and data, construction plans based on environmental data and ultimate oversight, etc., etc., etc.
Perhaps they forgot that close by on other landfill sites the Millennium tower is sinking and tilting, and the newly built Salesforce Transit Center was and still is shut down, fraught with safety issues. Oh, and add to it these zones of liquefaction are in prime earthquake position! The Fast-Track Legislation is a change to the building code that can potentially create dangerous situations for years to come.
Many neighbors and I share in wanting viable solutions to the homeless issues, caused by drug and alcohol addictions, mental illness, and economic challenges, here and throughout the state. We voted for funding specifically for this. However, given the complexities involved, this proposed, “temporary” site, is not a viable solution and will not target the source of the issues. And, does “temporary” equate with solution (the correct answer to a puzzle?) I don’t think so.
The Grab is the injustice of having 200+ homeless people and crime imported into our densely residential neighborhood including children, of reducing our safety, quality of life and property values without any appropriate dialogue and regard for us as hardworking taxpayers. There’s legal action, much press, chaos and stress because of the Mayor’s actions. Completely unnecessary! Surely, she didn't mean to be divisive, but her continued actions and tenacity to this predetermined fast-track process and agenda of 1,000 beds for the homeless before her term ends in 2020 have created exponential volatility and division.
The practice now is to stand firmly with the others who support the thriving of homeless people as well as our thriving, do what we can to engage in intelligent, compassionate pushback, and continually let go of attachment to the outcome; like waves rolling in and out, always with moments of calm.
Mindfulness around my behavior during “the grab” is up for me now. Here’s the presentation of another perfect opportunity to practice recent “Aha’s” involving conditioned tendencies, awareness of being safe and well-positioned, and necessity to allow for inquiry and open-heartedness while in the midst of the forces of engagement; in essence, a more inclusive stance.