Never Enough Time

Burgess Meredith as Henry Bemis

Part of life for voracious readers is the nature of time. Add every other conceivable thing into the mix, and you can imagine that a lack of quality time (coupled with silence), marks the definitive challenge for erudite scholars. Books and reading are so much a part of my life, it can be disconcerting when I encounter someone who lacks the drive and curiosity to engage written material. How does one remain ignorant of the hidden intricacies of Shakespeare? Or the poems of Robert Frost and ee cummings? How about the wild, crazy, virile masculinity of Hemingway?! 

Experiences captured on the page by the sharpest intellects inform us by whisking us away to other places and times, allowing the reader to walk in someone elses' shoes, feel what it is to be them and have their experiences, through the creation of a window to their world. To me, the most skilled writer is also an adept time traveller, so complete is our transportation. It also develops an enormous sense of empathy within the avid reader, and a keenness for what it means to be human.

You can imagine my terror when I meet someone who fobs off the pleasures of reading as the pursuit of an aesthete who simply chooses to escape from daily life. Such is not the case with me, though I speak only for myself, and not for every bibliophile on the planet. It has given me the ability to have insights beyond my extensive life experiences, which are rather vast for someone my age. I have been accused more than once of making up fake stories, a crasser mind would accuse me of "lying", because it was inconceivable to my listener that I could absorb so much in such a relatively short amount of time. And yet I have, and that is a fact.

Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on who you are) I'm primarily a visual artist, and an avid photographer, so I can provide proof to corroborate most of my life stories. But, it is disheartening. After all, I consider my life to be one of learning and teaching, constantly on a quest for improvement, ever striving upwards. What does one do with the permanently stuck, sick, or close-minded, the willfully ignorant, those who choose darkness and seal their off hearts, minds, and ears to information, the kind that is truly beneficial, those helpful facts from our shared existence? 

I don't have a ready answer for that. Luckily, I have become adept at making excellent decisions, snap judgments, and choices that go with my gut very quickly, so I tend to screen out that degree of intolerance from my life. It is another skill I feel blessed to have, one that was honed by many hours of observing human nature, asking questions, meeting a wide variety of people from many walks of life and regions on this earth, along with expert testimony from books, written by the best minds, and with a deft hand.

I once saw an interview with the late, great writer James Baldwin, taken place during his last years in Paris. He talked about the poverty of his birth and also the spark he felt within, despite the lack of available outlets and resources around him, and at being the only one of his kind, in his immediate environs. He explained that he made it a goal to read every book at the local free public library, in his neighborhood in Harlem, and that he knew he would come out an educated person if he did so. And he was right. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Baldwin

Determining who among us share that same excitement and zest, those who are lit from within with a "joie de vive", and to coax that flame into a raging fire, is tantamount to saving a life. The stereotype of the shuttered bookworm who seeks to add nothing to the experiences around them is a woefully inadequate stereotype. Reading is essential to growth. Period. If you encounter resistance, as I so often do, smile, and then hand them a book, tailored just for them. It's a gift that will last a lifetime. So, what exactly are you waiting for?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_Enough_at_Last

 An unexamined life is not worth living.

—Socrates  http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Socrates

Beauty and the Beholder

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Eye_of_the_Beholder

Many American stereotypes exist regarding beauty. Good-looks supposedly secure the genetically-favored with all manner of societal advantages: better paying jobs conferring high prestige, which guarantee an easier passage through life, shown through countless serious sounding "studies". Huh. I must have been on the unemployment line when these benefits were handed out.

It can be quite the opposite. I've written before about modeling shows on t.v., which basically humiliate, debase, and lampoon tall, skinny, photogenic girls for the audiences amusement. See? Beauty is supposed to hurt! If that's the case, then Cruelty is a definitely bitch goddess, and Envy is her evil little troll of a sidekick. The truly becoming encounter as nasty a bias against them as someone on the opposite end of the scale; such is the case with extremes in nature.

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Eye_of_the_Beholder

In certain intellectual circles, like academia, the highly attractive can be seen as suspect, gaining access through their looks and not their credentials, thus making an already vicious and competitive atmosphere downright dangerous and hostile. Given current fears about the economy, the basis for such prejudices directed against a comely colleague can gain widespread acceptance and even thrive, by allowing threats to become particularly nasty, especially if a worker perceives another has a huge, unfair advantage over them.

As I channel-surfed one night, I became vividly interested in a program that featured a plastic surgeon who was at a loss at how best to facially reconstruct the features of the burn victims who came to him for help. He couldn't find a definitive source for facial features that were aesthetically pleasing. Magazines were fine to look through, but there was too much artifice from special effects like lighting and digital retouching. He needed actual anatomical guidelines for a pleasing nose, or a well-placed mouth, something more scientific, that he could refer to while in surgery. It's called "The Golden Ratio", mathematical proportions for symmetry, the key factor in attractiveness.

What we have here is a case of genetics, factors outside of our control, occurring in the womb during gestation. Could you imagine a prejudice that was open and apparent (and actively encouraged) against say, skin tones or eye color, height, or hair color? Nonsense, right? Even further stretching the basis for such rank biases, a doctor from another study has never found a perfect "10" in facial symmetry during her research, and doubts that such a face has ever existed in the human race, as outlined in this article from Oprah.com: http://www.oprah.com/oprahshow/Measuring-Facial-Perfection-The-Golden-Ratio

You have read correctly, dear readers. Perfection is not part of the human condition, something I have long known. As an artist, I have done many, many nude studies, portraits, and self-portraits. Like a doctor, after awhile you just see light, shadow, skin, muscle, features. You see the person before you, nothing more, nothing less, and you make art based on those observations. It is these imperfections which make us unique, and therefore humanly beautiful.

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Eye_of_the_Beholder

The next time you respond favorably to an attractive person, give yourself a break. It is not shallow, rather it is encoded deeply within us to respond thusly. It's the factor that bonded our parents during mating and birthing. So if you come down with a case of the green-eyed devil, remember that beauty can do nothing, but you, the beholder, can adjust your attitude, because a bias by any other name is still the same.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_attraction