Some thoughts on The Gates ...

Awesome.

The frozen Yukon River in winter, Lofoten in summer, Paris in spring ...

The Gates in Central Park.

All awesome ... in these the word has meaning.

In the afternoon of February 22, coming up out of the subway at the globe in Columbus Circle, seeing The Gates for the first time, the entrance engulfed in the melee of people purchasing official souveniers ... then walking into Central Park ... I knew some of the history of The Gates. The story had been repeatedly presented during the few weeks and days prior to "the blooming of 7,500 fabric panels on February 12, 2005." (Read the artists' press release.)

I have since mused about what it would be like to come upon The Gates with no prior knowledge of it. (Or is it best described as "them", plural? I think not, but I'll get to that.) That thought led a parade of thoughts on understanding art as individual experience ... and in the case of The Gates individual experience including not only the changing circumstances internal to the viewer like prior knowledge and the resulting expectations, but also intelligence, acuity, state of alertness, ... ; AND the changing circumstances of the setting itself: day, night, rain, snow, bright, cloudy, calm, breezy, windy, ... presented in the context of the REAL tension that The Gates will be removed starting on February 28. The Gates reached out and grabbed me, Wake up, pay attention! This is a moment of material existence, a totally human endeavor not to be missed.

Upon entering Central Park and coming into The Gates ... being in The Gates ... another gestalt formed. Once there, I understood The Gates. I could have left at that moment and I would have been satisfied. I also knew in that moment that no matter how long I spent in The Gates, I would not experience "all" of it.

I could stop writing here ... and you could stop reading too. But it doesn't end.

Thinking about The Gates, once experienced, is a continuation of that experience ... infinitely rich and varied in finite time and space.

The genius of the conception ... and then the incredible effort to give it birth ... and the acceptance of its end.

The boring simplicity of the frame viewed at close range ... pedistrian in form and placement. The vibrant complexity emerging exponentially as the view rotates or expands ... or the setting changes with weather and time of day ... or with light and wind. This is why it is not "them", but "it."

Contrasted to art that is forever, relative to my existence as is the Mona Lisa ... or scripted ... The Gates is in one sense like an ice sculpture ... but totally different because the dissolution is also a human act ... itself a part of the artists' work.

It will be, it is , it has been ... all eternal facts of temporal creation.

With The Gates as an example of human effort, who of us can doubt our worth?

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You can view my set of personal photos of The Gates at:

The Gates

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You can also view The Gates in Central Park at the NYC-POV website. Click on the following for a direct link:


The Gates as VR


Or go to the www.nycpov.com website and click on The Gates name or photo.

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You can also visit the artists' websites for The Gates:


The Gates (I)

or

The Gates (II)

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The Gates

The Gates







Approaching and entering ...























A small sampling of views ...

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Some thoughts on The Gates ...

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You can also view The Gates in Central Park at the NYC-POV website. Click on the following for a direct link:


The Gates as VR


Or go to the www.nycpov.com website and click on The Gates name or photo.

---

You can also visit the websites for The Gates:


The Gates (I)

or

The Gates (II)

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Is "a spade" a spade?

Seems like we need some new names for some things, names that are more accurate in describing the fundamental characteristics of what they are meant to describe.

Take "taxes" for instance. Ever since Jesus was credited with saying something like , "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's", we've had this perception that taxes were some kind of imperial toll. They're not.

Taxes are our pool of shared wealth, the amount or resources we choose to use in establishing and maintaining the community in which we all participate.

As our forebears understood, building roads and water systems, providing education and public safety as a joint effort, did not undermine capitalism or initiate communism. The well-run city was a platform for its marketplace. If the platform is rotten ...

But this is so obvious that maybe the real question is whether our pool of shared wealth becomes the onerous imperial toll only when it is used for the benefit of those whom we do not consider to be part of OUR community?

On community and voting ...

The basic unit for the species, Homo sapiens, is the tribe ... what we would call our primary community ... which I will simply call, the community.

It is only as a member of a healthy community that all of our needs for a healthy life can be met.

This concept is basic to all that we do as human beings.

The liberating act ... the foundation of freedom and liberty for the individual ... is a recent phenomenon. It is that I, as an individual, can choose for myself the community to which I belong.

To the extent I do not have that choice, then to that extent I am not free.

Freedom is not about which pair of shoes I buy, or which car I drive ... except how I identify with my community in those acts. If I CANNOT dress outside the code of a community, reside outside the boundaries of a community, or have close, personal friendships outside the members of a community ... then I am not free.

To the extent in voting I vote to liberate myself and others from the restrictions of a community, to that extent I am enlarging freedom. If in voting I vote to increase the restrictions of a community upon myself or others, to that extent I limiting freedom.

Voting can enslave me.

Dumbest thing I ever heard!

In HOW WALL STREET LEARNS TO LOOK THE OTHER WAY, on

today's (Tuesday, Feb 8, '05) OpEd page of the NY

Times, Robert J. Shiller, writes, "Consider financial

theory ... In effect, it portrays people as nothing

more than 'maximizers' of their own 'expected

utility.' This means that people are expected to be

totally selfish, constantly calculating their own

advantage, with no thought of others."



If this were even remotely true we could never have an

infantry platoon ... or any kind of team for that

matter.



It is SO DAMN obvious that individuals maximize the

expected utility of the group(s) to which they belong

rather than their expected utility in isolation that

one wonders where these so-called financial theory

experts brains are located ... or if they use them.



This is why forming a sense of "community" is SO DAMN

important! It is the self-esteem we feel as a

respected member of a respected "group" that allows us

to function as psychologically healthy individuals.

I found this interesting ...

U.S. Encouraged by Vietnam Vote: 

Officials Cite 83% Turnout Despite Vietcong Terror 



 By Peter Grose, Special to the New York Times --

Sept. 4, 1967 



 WASHINGTON, Sept. 3-- United States officials were

surprised and heartened today at the size of turnout

in South Vietnam's presidential election despite a

Vietcong terrorist campaign to disrupt the voting. 



 According to reports from Saigon, 83 per cent of the

5.85 million registered voters cast their ballots

yesterday. Many of them risked reprisals threatened by

the Vietcong. 



 The size of the popular vote and the inability of the

Vietcong to destroy the election machinery were the

two salient facts in a preliminary assessment of the

nation election based on the incomplete returns

reaching here. 



 A successful election has long been seen as the

keystone in President Johnson's policy of encouraging

the growth of constitutional processes in South

Vietnam. 

Letter to the Editor, NY Times

Date:	Sun, 6 Feb 2005 03:59:09 -0800 (PST)
From:	"Hilding Lindquist"
Subject:	Leading Shiite Clerics Pushing Islamic Constitution in Iraq
To:	"letters nytimes"

Dear Editor:



What is so damn discouraging is our President putting the

cart of voting ahead of the horse of participatory

institutions in calling for the spread of democracy ...

and the so-called intelligensia of our nation falling all

over themselves congratulating him on his bold initiative.



No one seems to have a sense of history, of the fundamental

importance of the ground-level sense of acceptance of one's

own personal value coming out of a community where the

respect for one another's INDIVIDUAL opinion has been

CONCRETELY demonstrated for generations ... in the courts,

in the markets, in the religious communities, and, yes, in

the family.



Just look at how predictable the outcome of a poll in our

own military is where conformity also holds sway.



If a Democratic President led a military adventure which

led to the establishment of a Muslim government, he or

she would be impeached, period.



This IS Alice in wonderland ... where are the adults of

our nation? Are we all so concerned for our own share of

the pie that we are afraid to speak the truth as we see it?

The snow is falling

Large wet snowflakes fall on snow covered ground ... one of the most beautiful scenes in nature. Here in New Jersey, the snow muffles the urban noises and creates an aura for reflection and repose.

In my mind I wander randomly through the memories of my youth in Northern Minnesota and my more recent years in Interior Alaska. When winter is still and beautiful, I am at peace with myself.

It is times like this when I miss Alaska most deeply.

Strange, I guess, but it is when the cold wet wind is howling through the trees in New Jersey that I think of the beaches of Los Cabos. When the sun is shining in the summer, I long for the fiords of Lofoten. When the snow is falling in large snowflakes on a still winter day, I think of the awesome winter wilderness of the world of the Yukon River.

I played with our dog and cat inside this morning. Life is good even though I don't travel anymore.