Imnaha Canyon, evening light | SIX MINIATURES from THE LITTLE CLAVIER

[ tweet no. 5,714 V.3.2013 ]

MONEY OUT OF NOTHING?

Insurers make money out of what doesn't happen.

Bankers, from money that doesn't exist.

Lawyers take care of the rest.

SIX MINIATURES from THE LITTLE CLAVIER . . .

CENTERS OF LEARNING

We shape the world and the world shapes us.

It takes more than a school to educate a child; it takes, as
they say in Africa, an entire village, a village deeply
rooted in place.

In each life, learning has a center.

The teacher is the one who helps the student find it.
Nourishing content, and a free, open, protected space in
which this center may clarify and flourish, are the cultural
imperatives of any community or tradition dedicated
to the fostering of creativity in the young.

NOTE TO MYSELF . . .

If your pictures are not good enough, it’s most likely not because of
poor equipment or technique. More likely is that you’re not living close
enough to your subject. Be out, be exposed, be on foot. The rhythm of
walking will generate the energy which burns away the opaque, faded
film clouds over the new with 2nd-hand images out of somebody else’s
past; the downtime of sitting out storms in your tent will develop pa-
tience and a compassionate, steadfast heart. Who knows? One day you
may go out sleepy-eyed in the middle of moon-lit night and stumble
upon the scene of your life. Who knows?

SEEING

I tell myself: To study Nature, learn to see;

To learn to see, watch seeing in action;

To watch seeing in action, observe the blocks,

the dams, all the stuff that’s in the way.

HOW THE WORLD CHANGES

Don’t waste time trying to save corrupt politicians,
or reform corrupt institutions. How much better
to start afresh and teach the young! It takes but nine
years to educate a entirely new generation. Of scientists,
of artists, farmers, and healers.

At the entrance way to your school of a wholly new way
of being, place but one sign with three imperatives:

“All you who enter here, leave behind your old ideas
of war, of fear, and of waste.”

WOMEN IN THE WEST

See that older woman over there? They say she was here
before sagebrush. And see the other, the young one fixing
the rockjack holding up the fence her grandfather built? They
say she’s the child of a prize Chicago bull and opera singer
from Amsterdam. A smile stretching from here to Kansas,
Heart hiding behind rings of fading promises,
Hair let down only when safely out of the wind.

HOW TO PROTECT AN
ALPINE MEADOW

Hike there.

Find water.

Sit.

Move as little,

and stay as long,

as possible.

THE LITTLE CLAVIER please preview 150 of 631 pages
w/ my black & white photography [opens in new window]

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