Beltane\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Waning Last Frost Moon<\/p>\n
Groceries.\u00a0 Bees.\u00a0 Check in for cruise.\u00a0 That’s my day today.\u00a0 Well, I might watch a bit of the 500, just see how it goes.<\/p>\n
It Broke From Within (see post below) is based on a quote from a p.r. piece for an early Walker project that read:\u00a0 Remember France?\u00a0 It broke from within.\u00a0 That can happen here.<\/p>\n
It goes on:\u00a0 We can only protect our own country within by making more of us more understanding of each other’s freedom and each other’s work and possessions.\u00a0 We must learn to place a high value on the things that we have created and built and which we would inevitably lose through disunity and social revolution.\u00a0 Nothing is more important to us than those civic institutions, of which the art center is one, that create a broader appreciation of our common bonds–our homes, our work, and our personal expressions.<\/p>\n
At first I read this as an artist’s statement by Goshka Macuga and wrestled with its obviously conservative tone, especially in the sentence:\u00a0 We must learn to place a high value on the things we have created and built and which we would inevitably lose through disunity and social revolution.\u00a0 The first we here seems to encompass all, all Minneapolis, all Twin Cities, all Minnesota, all USA while the second we encompasses those who build and create, mostly the upper classes, who then, the third we, stand to lose things during a period of disunity and social revolution.<\/p>\n
Then I realized that, no, it was not an artist’s statement, but a statement from the Walker Art Center fund drive brochure in 1941.\u00a0 Oh.\u00a0 Well, it makes sense then. However, in that time between first reading it and realizing it was a fund drive brochure quote, I did consider a conundrum, a paradox that dogs my thinking and my working life.<\/p>\n
It is this.\u00a0 Since the mid-60’s I have considered myself a political radical, willing to act outside the law if necessary to protest and resist unjust laws and unjust governmental or corporate actions.\u00a0 I’ve not only considered myself a radical, but have, on many occasions, been a direct action activist.\u00a0 What I’m saying here is that my political sympathies and my political work lie considerably left of center and left of liberal.<\/p>\n
Here’s the rub.\u00a0 I love art.\u00a0 I love being around art and talking to other folks about art.\u00a0 Especially in the context of a museum.\u00a0 I love the outdoors and mother earth.\u00a0 I love being outside and talking with others about being outside. I love the garden and growing things, working with bees.\u00a0 I love my family, keeping them close and supporting them.\u00a0 I love the classics in literature and music, too.\u00a0 I love them enough to learn Latin and translate a 2000 year old Latin text.\u00a0 These are all conservative impulses.<\/p>\n
Art in museums and the purpose of a docent lies in admiring and sharing the work of artists over thousands of years and vast spans of geography.\u00a0 This requires, quite literally, conservation and an appreciation for the past.\u00a0 Working on behalf of mother earth and our great outdoors, even gardening and beekeeping, are, by definition, conservative.\u00a0 That is, they act to conserve our natural world through good stewardship.\u00a0 Loving family is a time honored conservative theme, because it too, quite literally, preserves and conserves our\u00a0 species.\u00a0 Even religion, which has been an important part of my life for a long time, entails conforming ones life to an often ancient code and deposit of tradition.<\/p>\n
So.\u00a0 There it is.\u00a0 Radical leftist in politics.\u00a0 Conservative in many of the areas about which I’m most passionate.\u00a0 What’s that?\u00a0 They’re categorically different uses of the word?\u00a0 Well, maybe, but I think the underlying theme suggested in the Walker Brochure tries to argue for a universal conservative impulse, one oriented toward stability and fear of social chaos, yes, but also toward preserving the best of what we have learned, of what we have come to believe important.<\/p>\n
Here is my current thought.\u00a0 While I love art, nature, and family and will and do act to protect and nourish them, conservative intuitions, I also recognize that not all folks have equal access to art, to the natural world, even to stable families.\u00a0 Those of us who have “created and built” must understand that all wish to do so.\u00a0 That the culture and the families we love must see to it that others have that privilege, too.<\/p>\n
We also must recognize that while we cherish certain institutions and achievements, others have them, too, often ones we have not recognized.\u00a0 Jazz is a good example.\u00a0 So is the native american’s delicate dialogue with the natural world.\u00a0 So is the rich extended family life of the Latino culture.\u00a0 They wish to conserve the things they have created and built just as much as we of the middle-upper and upper classes want to conserve ours.<\/p>\n
It is this tension between what could be and what it is that drives the difference between the radical and the conservative.\u00a0 And ever will.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Beltane\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Waning Last Frost Moon Groceries.\u00a0 Bees.\u00a0 Check in for cruise.\u00a0 That’s my day today.\u00a0 Well, I might watch a bit of the 500, just see how it goes. It Broke From Within (see post below) is based on a quote from a p.r. piece for an early Walker project that read:\u00a0 Remember France?\u00a0 It … Continue reading A Paradox<\/span>