Day two of Beacon Open Studios begins at noon! If you are in the area come visit! I am #9 on the map.

From this morning’s walk…

Glass storage jars filled with candy, macaroni, lentils, popcorn, in a shop window.

Close up of a tropical plant leaf with center vein running from top to bottom and secondary veins fanning off at a 45 degree angle.

Closeup of trumpet shaped pink and green flower.

Brown, black and blue plaid dress on a mannequin in a shop window.

Partially finished men’s plaid dress jacket in a tailor shop window.

Ring of violently churning water on the surface of a creek.

Red, white, blue, yellow, green plastic six pack carriers in a shop window.

White hydrangea flower and torso mannequin with beaded white dress on it in a shop window.

July 22, 2023 - by Heather Cox Richardson

The Florida Board of Education approved new state social studies standards on Wednesday, including standards for African American history, civics and government, American history, and economics. Critics immediately called out the middle school instruction in African American history that includes “how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.” (p. 6). They noted that describing enslavement as offering personal benefits to enslaved people is outrageous.

Open Studios day one coming to a conclusion. Among my visitors was @Parag!Thanks for coming! First time either one of us has met an M.b member in the flesh.

I believe there is a dimension of the universe dedicated to pet hair. The nature of this dimension is to act as a repository for pet hair such that, whenever you vacuum up the pet hair, minutes later a fresh supply appears. Nature abhors a vacuum.

Literature and Empathy :: Essays On Attention Paid

Humanity is a beautiful mosaic. As long as another’s way of being in the world doesn’t cause physical or psychological damage to those around them, all ways of being should be tolerated. We should aim to educate as broadly as possible in the variety of ways one can be. Children in particular, at appropriate ages, with appropriate guidance, should be allowed and encouraged to inhabit a multitude of ways of being, as they work out what their way of being will be.

BOS has arrived! If you are in or near the Hudson Valley, come visit!

Julie Byrne: The Greater Wings Album Review | Pitchfork

Six years later, the itinerant Buffalo, New York, singer-songwriter incorporates harp, synth, and piano alongside her nimbly fingerpicked guitar and dusky vocals; the broader palette and cosmic scope—she invokes “distant galaxies” in the first verse—feel like a logical progression of her astral folk.

Literature and Empathy :: Essays On Attention Paid

To understand what it feels like to be in someone else’s shoes, read accounts of it by talented authors who’ve had that experience or have done the work it takes to write an honest and empathetic portrayal of it. And write about it yourself. Nothing lets you walk a mile in another’s shoes quite the way imagining and writing about it does.

Literature and Empathy :: Essays On Attention Paid

We spend our lifetimes steeping in cultural cosmologies1 that become gated communities of belief where anything outside the gates is foreign, even dangerous. Some of us have expansive cultural cosmologies with highly permeable membranes around them. Some of us have tightly limiting cosmologies with hard exoskeleton membranes and little permeability. The majority of us are somewhere between. Literature is often the way hard, permeable exoskeletons are avoided or softened.

Accordion book display installation for Open Studios this weekend…

While everyday creativity probably leads to improved satisfaction, self-esteem and enjoyment of life, really pushing the boundaries may come at a price. He calls this the ‘mad-genius paradox’.

— The Matter With Things: Our Brains, Our Delusions and the Unmaking of the World by Iain McGilchrist a.co/iKZi1T5

But having some, but not all, the genes for schizophrenia may promote creativity.

— The Matter With Things: Our Brains, Our Delusions and the Unmaking of the World by Iain McGilchrist a.co/1O2W90y

He then plotted the course of mood against creative production. The resulting curves are striking: he found a consistent link between the intensity of negative emotions, especially sadness, and subsequent periods of artistic brilliance. He concluded that such sadness was not just correlated with creativity but that it actually had a reliable causal effect, typically delayed by some months.

— The Matter With Things: Our Brains, Our Delusions and the Unmaking of the World by Iain McGilchrist a.co/h521vtL

From this morning’s walk…

Five pink stuffed monkey dolls hanging by their wrists in a shop window.

Sky reflection on the hood of a Tesla. Tesla logo in silver metal the lower right corner.

White mackerel clouds in a blue sky.

Baroque chair, sofa and chandelier in a shop getting ready to open.

Rack of hand made greeting cards wrapped in cellophane. Cards have a nostalgic feeling to them.

Women’s bluejeans jump suit with large wide brim woven hat on mannequin in a shop window. Sky clouds and buildings reflection overlaid.

Women’s blue fabric bathing suit with mermaid print laying in shop window.

I know at least one M.b peep is within day trip distance of Beacon, NY. In case anyone else is. Going to be a beautiful weekend and we have several craft beer establishments to whet the whistle in.

If you find yourself in the Hudson Valley, NY…

Dark forest landscape scene with announcement of open studio overlaid.

Literature and Empathy :: Essays On Attention Paid

Who knew that “fondle” was loaded with male, heterosexual-lizard-brain, sensibility? When I related this particular insight to my wife, she instantly said she hated the word. I never knew. I was more deeply stuck in the culture of male heterosexuality than I had imagined.

… a lot of breaking news on the 45 front… 45 has received notification of target of investigation in J6 coupe attempt from DOJ… the indictment is imminent… 45 will go full ballistic political… already is… the Republican party thankfully tied to his feet as he stands on a platform of lies and innuendos with a rope around his neck… the door will open and the whole republican authoritarian thing will perish… at least that’s how i hope it goes… then perhaps we can go back to arguments about policy…

From this morning’s walk…

View down a street in the early morning with trees on the left and utility pole and wires on the right side and the hazy outline of rounded mountains in the distance.

Image of a white flower, pine cone shaped, with hundreds of florets open or opening. Plant foliage in the background.

Picture of a metal plate with a hinged rectangular access panel at the top, slightly off center, and faded graffiti.

Woman’s sundress, green/brown with beige circular graphic flowers, gathered at the hips and again at the bust, with broad brimmed woven hat on a mannequin. Shot looking up the length of the dress with sky and building reflection on the shop window overlaid.

The morning sun reflected off the smooth surface of water in a stream, the drop off of a damn on the upper right side, ripples in the water on the bottom foreground, dark foliage and trees running up the left side and across the top.

The right arm of a mannequin on a wooden floor surface running from the shoulder in the lower right to the hand in the upper middle.

So, it’s a “chew gum and walk at the same time” sort of thing?

Chalk board sandwich sign with a picture of a bowl of ramen taped to the top portion, a drawing of a bowl of ramen below the picture and the words “EAT RAMEN & DRINK ALCOHOL AT THE SAME TIME” written in capital letters below that.

Love is messy…

Irregular white paint patch on brick paving with “I LOVE YOU ALWAYS” stenciled onto it in black.

Read: Caliban and the Witch by Silvia Federici 📚 An astonishing book about the rise of capitalism in the midst of feudalism and its effect on the lives of women. The best testament I can give to it is that I literally underlined half the book. Do not buy the Kindle version. It’s unreadable.

Read: One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston 📚 testing… yesterday I posted that I had finished reading this book, which I have, and I loved it. But I think I posted from my Reading list, instead of my Read list, so it’s not showing up as progress towards my goal this year. So, lets see if it does now.

Literature and Empathy :: Essays On Attention Paid

When I put my piece out into the public, I believed it was plausible, respectful, and well written, but, it felt risky. I was conscious of tackling subject material beyond my direct experience, and acutely aware of the male sexual voyeur perspective it was easy to fall into. I worried about grossly misunderstanding what an intimate physical relationship between two women would feel like to those women.