No Torch So Bright

It is said that a country can be judged by the way it treats its children, and this country, these states united are being judged by the decision of a few on the lives of many. 

We have experienced a heavy action with lasting ripples. An acton that goes beyond understanding. Beyond into the blackness of hell I've heard so much about. We are loosing our way. No torch so bright can shine for us, but us.

Our actions from here on will tell the story of a country so great or a country lost. It is our collective conscience that will determine the road forward. That will build the bridge or raise the wall. 

We have learned many lessons, taught many wrong doings. Skinned our knees and bare the scars of many years. Our country by virtue of its surroundings and histories is now an old soul. A complicated one. Built on the possibilities of freedom. On the words of "I have a dream" and the actions of marches. 

It is through our conception as a country that we will find our way.  Through our voices, our actions and our humanity. This is what freedom does. What being united means. 

A choir of many. A bee in the hive. 

CB 06/22/18

The Collective Future

It can be said with much truth that life is what we make it, how we create it. For ourselves and for others. 

Albiet in this era a difficult challenge, it's a challenge that can be met. A challenge I choose to accept. It is a future vision that I hold and a current task I take one step at a time. Sometimes I stumble like a bull in a china cabinet, breaking things as I force my way through. Other times my path is clear, especially when I see the bigger picture. The collective future. 

I am often inspired by the deeds of others. Their personal pasts and forward endeavors. This is what compels me. Pulls me forward. Feeds my passion and wonder. It is through others and for others that this moves me. It is at times mere words that catapults my intentions. Raises the hair on my skin and temperature of my blood. It too at times, is the acts of kindness that sets my desires forward. Pushes me. Hits me with a force of energy that sets my body ablaze with tingles. Shuddered exhilaration. 

It is through action that moves life forward, but is through human desire that gives it meaning. That feeds perseverance. The fire in the belly feeds the fire on the horizon. And the flicker in the eye warms the touch. It is our innate humanity that inspires. The seed within that can branch and blossom. It is this one thing that can set ablaze our world. Set it so bright and change its current course, move it just so. 

I am inspired by the thought of this, ready for the act of it. Already on the path, following others lead. 

CB 06/16/18

Design

 As our dissatisfaction with government grows and our concerns with the environment never lessening, it makes increasing sense that how we live would take a higher importance, a higher urgency as these realities run towards us. 

This is not an issue of what's trendy or chic. It is an issue of fulfillment of life. Meaning and purpose. A means to an end or at least to a journey. A layering of joy and hope in the center of reality. Life lessons. Life skills. 

"The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that it will not break it kills."                                                                                            

~Ernest Hemingway

Perhaps design should be seen more as a means to mend and fortify.  An elixir. Choir song and affirmation. If seen in this light, design could be used as an added tool in an ever growing need of defense. A utility of will, bandage or crutch. Hope and change in a fucked up world.

Design in this era can and should be seen as an action. To build and create, resolve and predict. To not only celebrate our imperfections but to know we have choices as to how to navigate the broken landscape. To move forward as we create, forward. 

"We all inhabit dwellings of some kind; the more thoughtful the attention we exert upon them, the more our infrastructure - our whole built world - is beautified."                    

 ~Carl Dellatore, Interior Design Master Class

Design touches our lives in many ways. We know this. And in this era, design can and will be our savior. Our shield, sword and final word. In our homes, neighborhoods and marches, design today is our moral investment.  Reality meets vision, affects future.

CB 06/14/18

To Thrive

I feel strongly in what the creative arenas can do. How they can inspire change by tapping into emotion and intellect. Our humanity. 

Say what you will to my romanticism but this is fact. Action and purpose. 

To thrive.

To push.

To pull.

To will.

To love.

Action is an act of doing. An act of creating. In these troubling times action is a creative force of many levels and arenas. A push and pull forward. 

CB 06/01/18

Storied Objects

Sometimes an object has meaning and memories attached, that's when they become story tellers.   A hand made vessel can hold flowers but it also holds the story of its maker, what they bring to its creation. Their likes and dislikes as well as their personal history, blood memory. Thoughts and emotions that they themselves may not truly know exist.

Objects contain many associative meanings that we attach, rendering them as ledgers, documents of time and emotion. Triggering visual cues and faded scents. Nostalgia. Archeologists are constantly digging up storied histories that have their own meaning and meanings we eventually attach. 

Our bodies are vessels as well, containing our past and the past before it. Perhaps this is our connection to objects. Our need to make real the memories and emotions we carry within. Our desire to covet what we can no longer hold. What has slipped beneath the surface of time, abstracting and morphing into shadow. No longer available to our touch. 

We surround ourselves with stories by way of the physical world. They are our comfort. Our securities in these troubled times. They represent so much more than what they truly are. Our selves. Our Inner storied landscape.

CB 05/30/18