Noticing

In a time when the attention of so many is sucked into one small physical location, 21st century research is reminding us of the importance of the rest of our environment to day-to-day well-being. Nature and water have the most restorative qualities. The integration of elements in the natural world includes us when we’re walking through it. In Japan they recommend the benefits of forest bathing, a simple walk in the woods. Noticing what’s out there stimulates the senses and can stir curiosity because nature keeps changing. The clouds are different, the fox or deer or rabbit that runs through a yard is never the same, the edges of the creek vary as does the clarity and depth of the water. A regular suburban neighborhood is an endless stream of information, that when noticed, strengthens our ability to notice more. Any continued involvement in something brings expertise which enables us to see in more detail. Whether it’s studying the needs of the plants in your garden or learning more about the people around you, accumulated observation builds knowledge. Spinoza wrote “The more the mind knows, the better it understands.” Any one area of knowledge improves our base for reasoning about other things, with a range of characteristics, functions and interactions that can be compared to new perceptions, making distinctions where different and correlations where the same. Personal verbal language is enriched with new description and metaphor. This is not quantifiable knowledge. Observed knowledge broadens our base of perception. Everything we learn with our eyes fine tunes our ability to see. Every time I walk with my friend Jordan Tierney, I learn something from her intense ecological awareness of the natural world. I notice more. I contrast this with the memory of a teenager I saw walking in the surf at the beach, his eyes never leaving the screen in his hand which is attached by wires to his ears as well. Our curiosity has been co-opted by our phones, reduced to the choices on the screen- has someone responded to our post or text, do we have voice mail, what is the weather in the next 15 minutes, what’s the trending video. As algorithms and demagogues know, emotion gets attention but never has us question why a feeling attracts us. Art shows what words can’t say, bringing the feeling we couldn’t articulate back to us with real depth. Art can show feelings too subtle and deep for words. When Jordan and I were leaving the reservoir area we saw two buzzards pecking at something dead on the ground. When we were close enough see it was a fawn, horror and sadness were the only words. They couldn’t come close to describing the thickness in my chest. Later she sent me this page in her journal so beautifully exemplifying art’s power to say it for me.

Inside Look

Spectating

“Watching Tennis for Self-Improvement” was my first post inspired by tennis, followed by several over the years rhapsodizing with the admiration I feel whenever I watch a grand slam tournament. Admiration and inspiration are always dominant themes though each post emphasized different facets. I celebrated the breaking down of divisions by players from all over the world demonstrating individualized excellence, so favorites transcend national borders. When the camera focuses on the facial expression, it feels like such an honor to see into the core consciousness and focused hereness exposed on the face. The pleasure of saying “WOW” is pure joy, erupting spontaneously over shots that astonish and seem impossible. Both finals this year provided plenty of that and in the case of the men’s final for almost five hours. Each championship match was historic for different reasons. Marketa Vondrousova was the first ever unranked player to win the championship, beating one of the top ten women, Ons Jabeur. In the men’s final, Novak Djokovic, the record holding champion of the most men’s finals played the current number 1 player Carlos Alcaraz, 20 years old and with very little experience on the grass. Sure to become a legendary match, shots were thoughtful and creative as well as powerful. The spectators were held in thrall, our own attention spans stretched by the drama. We were all one crowd going crazy over the big shots, holding our breath at key moments, and it was the oneness I felt with the crowd this year that got my attention. We shared something special. Whether the camera, which loves fame, was focusing on the King of Spain or Brad Pitt, we were all united in wonder, everyone standing up and cheering with appreciation. Racial and ethnic diversity was evident throughout the stadium and on screens of all sizes all over the world. Boundaries are erased by appreciation. Our shared enjoyment surely produced some wonderful brain chemistry, excitement, energy, pleasure at watching the results of the superlative dedication necessary to achieve such mastery in their skills. The pleasure goes deeper when a player is watching. Experience sharpens observation and my friend Xandi Egginton who was a champion in high school, could tell who each player idolized and how it inspired them. He said, “In tennis it is all laid bare; the game is so diffuse with personality, character, and feeling that these qualities become a part of the fabric of competition, which I think is one of the many reasons tennis is such a special sport.” Dedication is inspiring. The benefits of admiration fed by good examples of heart, courage and discipline were there for all of us as witnesses and though I was watching through a screen it felt like something shared. Tennis has power to keep people in the moment and be more focused witnesses. Something that Alan Watts expressed different ways in different talks is that we are portals through which the universe sees itself. To witness such excellence is to be reminded of what humans can do when they give themselves to something and that we have a choice about where we give our attention when bad examples dominate the news.

Frustration

Meaning

From the beginning there is meaning. In the infant it’s not just perception but also correlation. Recent studies have shown that a nubbed pacifier which has only been in a baby’s mouth will be recognized externally when seen for the first time. One sense easily translates to another. The subsequent choice of a nubbed one over smooth is an early instance of preference attached to how something looked and its familiarity. Life experience accumulates a range of responses to sensation attached to objects and scenes that includes first impressions of preference- rejection, offense, neutrality. Response associations are embedded in how things look by personal experience and shared behavioral patterns basic to our species. We know when someone is about to fall because it’s what we look like if we lose our balance. We feel it in our bodies and might even automatically reach out if they’re close enough to catch. Neurologists have shown that an important part of how we recognize significant others in our life is by the automatic inner preparation that is part of the accustomed pattern of relationship and who has more control in that relationship. Everything we see is fused with a history of how we’ve felt about it. The responses express the meaning. The unconscious sense of absence, that lack of associations, might be the first sensation of difference. Without connections to it, we’re unsure how to respond. Art is a way to extend our range of visual associations through the feeling of the image making a bridge to surface unfamiliarity. We might not know what the specifics mean but if there’s a deeper feeling present, we feel it. By going deeper, we sense the universal. The common human feeling creates connection instead of division. As a sensory experience art reaches that linked core of response where sensation meets feeling, the summary of what something means to us. How we respond begins with this essence which is why experiencing art is so personal. Wherever there is a strong response signals an emotional connection to experience that shares that feeling and builds awareness of the personal emotional climate. Recent neuroscience has shown that art makes linkages throughout the brain which is why programs like VTS (Visual Thinking Strategies) are so successful at improving children’s test scores in all subjects. Looking at art and talking about what they see improves creative use of language and builds circuits that reach from the center out into all associated areas. Description of mood and feelings in a painting create mental patterns that resonate through the senses and are deeply linked creating expectations that form our intuitive response to different visual structures. Art extends our range of meaning.

Out of the Chreode

Re-Legacy

Patterns are everywhere. Visiting with my friend Paula Whaley was sinking into the presence of a woman who has affirmed and appreciated me since I first met her. We were both the on the Medicine Wheel Elder group who met monthly with the Baltimore Youth Ambassadors, a peer-counseling group, to hear their stories and offer advice and encouragement. I appreciated all the different people in the group but felt an immediate resonance with Paula and admired the essential wisdom she brought to every encounter. As we became friends, I learned she was the youngest sister of James Baldwin, a writer I felt like a force of nature, so powerfully could he convey the human heart. Because her father died the day she was born, he and her mother raised her. Our backgrounds couldn’t have been more different, yet we arrived at the same inner image of the world. An artist herself, her dolls expressed a world of feeling that I understand but haven’t experienced in the same way. While we were talking Sunday, I confessed to her that I hadn’t grieved for my mother. I told her I was reading a book by a former child actress called, “I’m Glad My Mom Died”. I’d forgotten about reserving it because when I requested it, there were 109 holds already. That was when she looked shocked. I reminded her of a conversation she once told me about with “Jimmy” and her mother around the kitchen table in their Harlem apartment. She was just a little girl and she asked them why white people were so mean. Her brother answered that it was because white parents didn’t love their children enough. White parents would object, but it may have more to do with definitions of love, particularly of children. White parents often see love as what they think is best for children without appreciating the way the child is. Jennette McDougal’s story is an extreme example of a parent trying to get a child “right” according to their own aspirations. The model fits many mothers I’ve seen in my parent’s and my own generation. I watched many times as they not only set goals for the kids but projected their own attitudes, kids’ own preferences and tendencies not even acknowledged. Disappointment, disapproval, and inadequacy are instilled at an early age as parents worried more about where the child wasn’t measuring up according to doctors, teachers, and themselves. Children are all different and the world would benefit from the range of new ideas that might emerge from their individuality, but channels of choice narrow and opportunities for self-discovery evaporate. Understand, I do not judge my parents. They are agents of the culture and did everything they were supposed to according to the acceptable models they were given. The generational heritage matters. Patterns repeat themselves. Studies on the relationship between child-rearing and the emergence of the Nazi party show that desire for an authoritarian who says they know best repeats the family structure. Frustration at what never had a chance to flourish is projected at the designated enemy. At a time when these kinds of attitudes are emerging again, we need to encourage the change in approach with the growing number of parents who have shifted from a fear-based approach to acceptance, support and love that connects beneath the surface.