I got an interesting response as to this posting from an artist and colleague Don Hill who said:
‘Any dichotomy —an either/or dilemma— is suspicious from the get-go. A zen parable is helpful perhaps: If you answer my question incorrectly, I will beat you with a stick. If you answer my question correctly, I will beat you with a stick. What is your answer? Thump. You must address the query — non-answers are an answer. Whack! No matter — you answered... There may be a resolution, if only you would _take the stick_…’
My response was:
‘I’ve been told that I’m heavy handed and paternalistic in writing, not leaving enough room for the listener or reader to take their own space. Ive been working on it, but in this case, I wanted to be black-and-white as a polemic and provocation (most people will ignore what I say anyway so why not tell it like it is) knowing, alas, that there’s a lot of space in between those two polarities.’
Since then I’ve been thinking about Don’s zen parable, notably what it might mean to ‘take the stick’, e.g. not responding to unanswerable questions but to act with relevance to situations such las iving in the fairy tale modernity.
Maybe ‘Taking the stick’ means changing the story?
Thank you, Claude Schryer, for this intelligent, sensitive comment that is filled with wisdom. I hope this "lens shift" can be spread out to the whole world. It is an eye opener.
I got an interesting response as to this posting from an artist and colleague Don Hill who said:
‘Any dichotomy —an either/or dilemma— is suspicious from the get-go. A zen parable is helpful perhaps: If you answer my question incorrectly, I will beat you with a stick. If you answer my question correctly, I will beat you with a stick. What is your answer? Thump. You must address the query — non-answers are an answer. Whack! No matter — you answered... There may be a resolution, if only you would _take the stick_…’
My response was:
‘I’ve been told that I’m heavy handed and paternalistic in writing, not leaving enough room for the listener or reader to take their own space. Ive been working on it, but in this case, I wanted to be black-and-white as a polemic and provocation (most people will ignore what I say anyway so why not tell it like it is) knowing, alas, that there’s a lot of space in between those two polarities.’
Since then I’ve been thinking about Don’s zen parable, notably what it might mean to ‘take the stick’, e.g. not responding to unanswerable questions but to act with relevance to situations such las iving in the fairy tale modernity.
Maybe ‘Taking the stick’ means changing the story?
Thank you, Claude Schryer, for this intelligent, sensitive comment that is filled with wisdom. I hope this "lens shift" can be spread out to the whole world. It is an eye opener.
Thx Laara for this feedback. Take care