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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 2141

Maybe bird talk is the betweens of the notes. Their notes are the canvas from which the silences arise as mountains and river valleys in relief.

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 2140

I am wondering about the benefit—and necessity—of a time away from the conversation. Two sleeps, or a sleepover on a mountain or beside a lake. What do we not know of that?

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 2139

Expand your ignorance.

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 2138

Do I paddle a canoe? In truth it is not something I do to the canoe. More with the canoe. The canoe, the paddle, and I become one. This one carries us. I provide the calories to propel. . .us. I invite another to sit here, too, we paddle in harmony, all still part of one object. I steer and the river steers more. We converse, the stream and two paddlers, several steerers, several minds, struggle or harmony.

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 2137

A conversation ought to be approached as a major work of art, something to heal the people, to raise us.

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 2136

We go to movies
We sit with friends
To load up on metaphors

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 2135

We keep finding new mysteries.

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 2134

There is at least in human conversation, a function for the functionless, untidy, things forgotten, things discovered, things held back, things in the dark, secrets and laughs not shared, things repressed. “But above all, develop the human talent for forgetting words, phrases, whole unwelcome sentences, all experiences involving wincing.” Lewis Thomas, Late Night Thoughts on Listening to Mahler’s Ninth Symphony, p 142. “We might, in this way, regain the kind of spontaneity and zest for ideas, things popping into the mind, uncontrollable and ungovernable thoughts, the feel that this notion is somehow connected unaccountably with that one.” Id, p 140.

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 2133

A cloud has floated
into this bright blue sky
friends, they are, conversing

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 2132

Are there limits to conversation, to a conversation, which can serve to give it focus and fertility? Orson Welles is reported to have said, “The enemy of art is the absence of limitations.” If we ask a poet to make a poem, she will stare at the page for hours, and not produce a jot. If we ask her to produce a sonnet about bathtubs in 24 hours, she is freed.

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 2131

Often
we don’t know what we think
until we write it or say it
we are then surprised
often

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 2130

Watch to see if I am leaving no trace, and to see that my work does not leave a trace on me. Yes! If we are not leaving a trace on ourselves, then we are being gentle with the other players, with the betweens, the surrounds, and the conversation.

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 2129

What next thing will have the best effect on the life of this conversation?

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 2128

We dear human
are perfect as perfect can be
get over your faults
they too rusty beauty
act!

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 2127

No, you are not using conversation to get something done. Conversation is using you to keep the one conversation going. The one conversation is life.

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 2126

What if, when there is a caesura, we took the clue and stopped talking? Went to writing, drawing, doodling? Meditating or contemplating? Took a walk? Took a nap? Then came back to our conversation? Perhaps the natural break (especially when it feels awkward) is offering us a pause?

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 2125

Our opposing views are not either/or, nor even both/and, but intertwining. Vine from the same root. They are mutually nourishing, even at times convivial.

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 2124

In prior centuries art and beauty were in service of, were seeking, meaning in life. As Christopher Alexander noticed with architecture, all that changed in the 20th century and architects started to make image-heavy statements, to express themselves individualistically. Psychology also became a way to personal expression. So too conversation: where before we sought family and belonging, these 20th century forces inclined us to seek ways to be heard, to find our voice. But this all leaves us feeling hollow. We are missing what would carry us above all this “look at me”—to hallow our lives. Yet this can only be found in and amongst the real world.

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 2123

Tell the fascinating thing fascinatingly.

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 2122

Conversation is not primarily communication. It is cooking.

It’s making something that wasn’t before. It’s creating. It’s digesting—outside the body and brain. It’s something we carry out that no one carried in.

It’s breaking down the fibers with heat and adding textures, flavors, and sauces. It’s cooking down to essences. It’s building up to nourishment. It’s the difference between milk and crème brûlée.

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 2121

Ya gots ta be curious.

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 2120

The US does not any longer want to be the world’s police force. But we can be a neighbor, helping in time of need.

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 2119

Learn something nobody yet teaches.

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