FootprintsintheWind.com

Might we two—together—become ecstatic—stand outside ourselves?

Ecstatic conversation—that’s the event—and the gallery—infusing us—and all around

Holy—mystic—we

:- Doug.

Knowledge is power
Emptiness is stronger

:- Doug.

In our homes and in our third places, do we still inhabit an oral world, touched only on its edges by literacy? Is this a clue to why we do not remember our arguments, do not know how to converse with a spouse?

:- Doug.

Writing encourages private divergence of thinking.

:- Doug.

Footprints in the Wind^sm # 2375

The dark wood is as clear as highway, only it asks more of us.

Please pass it on.

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Oral cultures progressed in Mnemosyne’s arms—the passing word instructed the next to come, through memory. With writing and reading we could add to memory and wise action. But still memory plays the big role, now only hidden: We write only what we want to remember.

:- Doug.

We are riddles one to the other
We are riddlers
Don’t we love being riddled

:- Doug.

This is an important work
Through an unimportant man

:- Doug.

In conversation we offer ourselves up to become our friend—not as our friend was five seconds ago, but as we together become other. We spin a thread of continuity and community, we enter a common dream and leave to something new in us.

:- Doug.

There is in meeting no safe space, no unsafe, no true nor false. It is all intense. It is all murky. The It and the freeing of the It, this is ritual, this is conversation. This is life, difficult as it is.

:- Doug.

Giving one’s self to the conversation
No, to your friend
Is a vow of your life, entire

:- Doug.

Poet
Ride your horse

:- Doug.

We, living
are a mystery
to ourselves
It will be a long while
and good
till algorithms
feel that mad delight

:- Doug.

Some people as they age grow mellow; others veer all over so you have to take their keys.

:- Doug.

Together
We gather
Art in puckers

:- Doug.

Place of gathering becomes place of loosening
Arrival becomes departure
Conversing and meeting become sending forth

:- Doug.

Like Improv, you eventually agree upon the conversation’s mood and theme—but rarely at the start.

:- Doug.

Together
Making art
In layers

:- Doug.

Every layer is a point of departure. Remember Indra’s Net?—every gem at each knot reflects all the rest. But not equally brightly nor equally centered. Every layer invites you most strongly to depart to the ones closest by.

:- Doug.

Boing boing boing
Boring!
Or
Boring boring boring
Boing!

:- Doug.

This week
Don’t drink hot chocolate
Don’t sit
Don’t talk out your heart
Do

:- Doug.

Layers
What are the layers of an ocean?
Have you been there?
What are the layers of a cloud?
Do you swim there often?
Have you walked through the layers
of chickens in a farmyard?

:- Doug.

I’ve been writing as if your work in conversing is to ambush your friend into the process. Maybe ambush is not the right word here. Instead, you might tease, or ask for help, or respond to his or her request. But: what if it were a mutual quest or consciously chosen game? How would you enter? Because conversational art is created together.

:- Doug.