A Pause for Beauty:
An artist’s journal.
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We Should Apprentice Ourselves
To Whales & Dolphins
I believe we should
apprentice ourselves
to whales & dolphins
more eagerly than
to any human guru.
The whales sing &
play all day &
when they're hungry
all they do is open
their big mouths
(how can they help it
if millions of krill
happen to seep in).
Yes, the whales
sing & play all day
& don't have to mail
their songs to any
publisher whales
in order to be free
from factories & blow
geysers of ecstasy
all day long. The
whales have no factories
need no factories want
no factories & sing & play
& blow geysers of joy
all day. . .
- excerpted from Whalewisdompeace Illumination, a poem by Jeff Poniewaz
Journal Notes:
As is common with creative projects of this type, the book I’m working on is evolving. Its latest working title, “The 48 Laws Of Living Life On Your Own Terms”.
Here’s the Third Law:
Think small. Do something unique and important in some small market.
Find a point of leverage so you have sufficient money to live outside the systems of the mainstream culture -- politics, big business, Wall Street. How do you make a living without participating in the status struggle, the life of desire that the mainstream culture involves?
Don’t compete; create work that has no competition, something based on what makes you unique. What small, profitable niche are you aware of or can you find? How can you contribute the most to other people’s lives doing something that no one else is doing?
After writing that in my journal, I meditated on what poem or book excerpt over the last thirty years best embodies that third law. Jeff Poniewaz’s poem immediately came to mind.