Go With the Flow

“A rolling stone gathers no moss.” ~Publilius Syrus

I provide the proverb above only to illustrate that it is a truism worth its weight in granite. In the sense that I did not abide long at my last stop along the path of life, I nevertheless rolled many rocks and gathered much moss to make them appear as though they’d been in place for eternity. Likewise, the 3-years I abided in my last location seemed like an eternity … trapped in Hell.

Whether interpreted to council that a wanderer will not acquire wisdom or wealth or that tedium and care attach themselves to stationary objects depends, I suppose, on if you consider the botanical division Bryophyta in a positive or negative light.

But for rock arrangement and the solace of the garden, where I endeavoured to create Eden in the midst of madness, I might have gone off the deep end. Indeed, the stress of living in an asylum for the terminally obstinate, obstructive and obtuse, was sometimes reflected in these pages. The conflict negatively affected my emotional and physical well-being.

Through it all, I tried to follow the Confucian wisdom collected in the Book of Changes, along with the  natural insights provided by the (second) water feature constructed in the midst of strata purgatory (twice a fool). In particular, I held close the lessons contained in Hexagram 29, The Abysmal (or Water doubled, Danger), which I contemplated earlier this year along with the knowledge of this latest move. Though not the first time I had cause to see my predicament as being trapped in the same canyon as a raging river, I understood that danger itself contained opportunity, if I kept my head.

Like water, we must fill up the deep spaces before flowing on. 

Aside from a few moments of despair (OK, more than a few!), I put my arthritic hands to the wheel and pushed on, all the while planning our exit. In the end, I thanked my tormentors (in writing) for inspiring, unwittingly, the Next Big Adventure, better off and with a new, stranger-than-fiction chapter in my journal.

Despite my abundant opinions on all and everything, the older I get, the less I truly know, excepting this hard-earned wisdom, which I can confidently impart: the strata corporation is of the Devil … and retired government bureaucrats.

Well, my mother told my father,
Just before I was born,
“I got a boy child’s comin’,
Gonna be, he gonna be a rollin’ stone. ~Muddy Waters

Speaking of rolling stones, I believe it was aging rocker Mick Jagger (himself sympathetic toward old Beelzebub) who responded to an interviewer’s request for news of his next album with the announcement that he was presently in “input mode.”

So it’s not just the upset of moving house and office that left June blogless. I’ve had no output to show. Thanks to Mick’s wisdom, I realize I’ve been in input mode. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

A Work in Progress

If, by chance, you’ve missed my posts, I can report that my new, so far tranquil location is having a rejuvenating effect on my creative “engine” — between hanging drapes and building shelves.

One compromise I’ve had to make in deference to the many virtues of the new (5 y/o) place, is the division of my work space into “Production/Office and Finishing/Archive Area.  The studio/garage is still functioning as a “staging area.” It’s all a work in progress.

However, I have today (Sunday) tied together loose ends of several unfinished stories abandoned over the last 6 months. I’ll be publishing those from this little bit of paradise regained and my new, 8´x10´ office over the next few weeks. See you in the Funny Papers. Curtain rods call.

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