Sous Chef

The word intuition is thrown about a lot; you often hear or read a software application is intuitive—meaning many of its features are readily discoverable without the need for many pages of written instructions.

This description can also describe the Zen understanding of intuition, where knowledge is grasped through immediate insight, not dogma, lengthy lectures, or experts.

The question persists: what is intuition?

Fundamentally, if the compelling force is for the good of all, then it is, indeed, intuition. If the feeling reeks of pettiness, self-pity, or any pitiful cohort, as in unscrupulous acts, then it is what it sounds like.

While empirical knowledge changes with new discoveries, knowledge based on intuitive awareness is universal, timeless, and doesn’t become obsolete—which also describes fine art.

Remember, intuition is your soul feeling the direct voice of consciousness—God. For those who can’t wrap their sensibilities around the concept of the Creator, Buckminster Fuller, polymath, inventor, and social observer on spaceship Earth, maintained that God is a verb, not a noun.

Did you “God” today brothers and sisters?

At the Reception

In his tome, Synergetics, R. Buckminster Fuller has an opening page titled: Moral of the Work. Here, Fuller sets the stage with his challenge: “Dare to be naive.”

Bucky is not asking us to be stupid, meek, or passively accepting. He is asking us to approach life without the dreadful dogma of the past; he is suggesting that we explore on our own and come to our own conclusions, which is another form of freedom.

As for the artist, “dare to be naive” lifts the curtain to the unique, wonderful, and limitless field of all possibilities.

Mojo

It’s very well-known that the public is all too often on that shaky ground of: what is art?

Then, there is the other side where the artist or painter must from time to time ask himself this same question. If not, then how can her art evolve. Art, after all, instructs at your pace—that is if you are willing to be present and not married to dogma.

Art is one way to freedom, which manifests itself in subtle, not gross, displays of what is unique—and when I write unique, I don’t mean pedestrian sensationalism; I do mean magic.

So, if the artist is to keep his mojo, he must earn it daily.

Gene Therapy

Today, I called someone I had never spoken with on the phone. She didn’t have a common name. Let’s call her Prudence.

The person on the other end says: Hi, it’s Prudence. How can I help you?

It becomes immediately clear that she doesn’t know what I’m talking about, and this is not the Prudence I had called. So, what are the odds here? Does it matter? What is the significance of this name caught in a matrix. Many would call it coincidence. But that’s not very satisfying or aware.

Coincidence means that we are not yet aware enough to see the whole picture—and how one thing may affect another. Meaningful coincidence is a better description of seemingly random events we cannot yet decipher. Meaningful coincidence also reminds us that there is a mystery still waiting to be solved, as Jung might have put it.

Meaningful coincidence is also at the heart of fine art. You may “think” you’re going one way, only to realize you’re off in a new unplanned, unexplored vista.

Sanctuary

Janet Riehl has initiated a new achievement award in honor of her father, Erwin A. Thompson, who will be celebrating his ninety-fifth birthday in a few weeks.

Aptly named and welcome, the Second Mile Award recognizes Elders 75 years and older whose dignity, character, creativity, and connection to community have contributed to the world around them.

Erwin based his life on the parable of the Good Samaritan: Matthew 5:41: “And whosoever shall compel you to go a mile, go with him, go twain.”

The deadline for nomination essays is November 9, 2010—Erwin’s birthday.

To find out how to nominate an Elder, learn more about the award, the meaning of the Second Mile, and Erwin’s life go to this link: Erwin.