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one of my paintings done with watercolor crayons
celebrating the art of paradox
Posts
delving into the wisdom of absurdity in whimsical way
this blog is about paradox.
through my questions, i hope to encounter the paradox within belief, that place where there is not one answer but many contradictory ones.
each question, each drawing is an invitation to join me in allowing what appears absurd to take us to a wisdom beyond linear thinking.
as long as we question, we are free. free to see, to feel and to express who we are. and to connect collaboratively with one another.
About Me
- anne artist
- i am a painter who began my career as a child coloring outside the lines of my coloring books. i am a writer who started out by composing adventure stories while riding my stick horse around the backyard. as a child, i got in trouble for asking too many questions...i question that.
you can find my cartoons in this online magazine!
http://thoughtsonsale.com/
here is the link to my photography blog about simplicity:
on a clear day she could see forever
one of my paintings done with watercolor crayons
"the emperor's new clothes" by hans christian andersen
this fairy tale has been a companion to me as i have traveled through my life.
briefly, it is about an emperor who was deceived by two tailors who said they were making a set of clothing out of a "dream" fabric. in reality, they used no fabric at all. to make their scam complete, they announced that only those who were wise enough would be able to see the beautiful clothing. and so, no one, not even the emperor, admitted to being unable to see it.
wearing his new "clothing", the emperor paraded through his kingdom. no one questioned his appearance; no one wished to appear less than wise.
until a small child asked, "why is the emperor not wearing any clothes?"
so it is that i ask, if i question rather than believe i am wise, what will i see?
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- if i were a flame, would i choke on the smoke?
- when i eat a meal, am i feeding the hunger?
- if i look at my reflection in a river, would you s...
- if it's the little things that count, do the bigge...
- if i am determined to reach my destination, where ...
- if you ask me for an answer to a question you have...
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- if i rolled the dice, would you erase the dots?
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23 comments:
Sometimes it's better to not have dots. Without dots, all sides are equal and the possibilities are endless.
Rolling dice indicates you are taking a chance. Erasing the dots would be taking away hope, an injustice and just a plain mean thing to do. No, I wouldn't erase the dots.
Rosemary
I would not erase the dots,I like the various possibilities the various dots would give me,if I erase the dots I erase all the possibilities.It is the same as people say I see the glass half empty,or half full, but I would rather see the glass overfilling with possibilities.Dice sometimes represents,risk,if one is able to take that risk,life gives as much more beautiful lessons to learn from.
If you have the dice,do I need to get a play board so that you can roll the dice on it?
What would you want the play-board made of?
BH
diveristy of opinion! i like it! and the cool thing for me, is that i can see each one making sense.
so, here goes.....
mwb, i like the idea that if there are no dots, i do not fear rolling a particular combination. and i get to create the dots as i go along. or not have dots. who knows what i could draw on the dice.....?
yet, sa, sometimes we benefit from having signposts along the way.
and bh, you raise the glass half empty situation. for me, i used to see it as half full but then i became engrossed in the glass itself rather than the contents. what about you?
and what is rolling the dice? risk? letting the dice direct us? testing to see if we can overpower the laws of chance?
"laws of chance"...an odd phrase.
and yes, bh, what surface would i roll the dice on? that would impact the result and the process itself. if you give me a game board, are you reminding me that it is all just a game?
The dots make it easy to see which side is which, but couldn't a careful observer see slight differences in the side.
If you peer deep enough you give identity and meaning at least as far as your own narrative.
"The offwhite side will decide who wins."
On the other hand, if you erase the dots you erase the meanings that OTHERS gave those sides. You have freed them if only for the tyranny of your own narrative.
Finally, an observation. Dice are called bones, because at one time they were carved from bones. They have their origins within us. Does that mean the dots had their origins within us?
Lazarus Lupin
Now with 50% more fun! http://strangespanner.blogspot.com/
Art and review
somehow, the computer just enabled my comment to l.l. to disappear...talk about erasing the dots......
i had been wondering about what the dice could be made of....
bones.....who carved the dice from my bones? what carved the dots into them? did i do it? how do i move through the world minus a dice sized piece of bone? when i roll the dice, do i recognize it is my own bone i am holding? is it possible for you to erase the dots?
bones, aside, odd as that sounds, how often do i look for markings on the surface rather than actually look deeply?
and now the topic of narrative......there's a lot that can be said about "You have freed them if only for the tyranny of your own narrative."
The bones used were generally the knuckle bones or the animal equivalent. To carve your own bones reminds me of two things. The short story "The bones player," about a fellow that played the bones (an irish instrument) and decided to use the bones in his own leg to make his instrument.
The second thought that crossed my mind is that if I was a mutant theologian on a bad day I could easily see some afterlife where one hand is lopped off, made into your dice and you'd be force to gamble your way through the afterlife. Who would belong in such a hell? Gamblers is too easy, perhaps people who were reckless?
subthought, a reckless person is seldome wreckless.
Surfaces. Yes we tend to see only surfaces, but that might not be a bad thing. A thousand poets can comment on Anne's sparkling eyes, but fewer would be able to wax on beloved entrails and beautiful bile.
Throw me back into the shallow water.
Lazarus Lupin
If we roll the dice, we must be looking for guidance and/or answers from something that is not within ourselves. Essentially, we are handing fate over to a separate entity. Possibly because making the decision for ourselves is too challenging? Too risky? Rolling the dice seems to represent the opposite of risk-taking since we are not responsible for the outcome... at the same time we have no control. The question then is, who designs the dots?
mwb, "Rolling the dice seems to represent the opposite of risk-taking". that is huge, in my opinion.
so, for me to show up in my own life is then, is claiming the moment to moment risk of being alive....
i like your question....who "designs" the dots. not carves them........
this morning, i was sitting at the table, eating breakfast and watching a female cardinal and a female blue jay explore the porch, albeit at a distance from one another, and considering this question. and i wonder, if each moment is a roll of the dice.....not in terms of giving up responsibility...that is another way of rolling them......but of taking an action when i have no real way of knowing what will result from it. i might hope for one result but perhaps an infinite number of experiences might greet me in the next moment. is rolling the dice on this level a way of saying....let the game begin?
l.l.......throw you back into the shallows? and you would be content there.....no tarot, no narrative? i have a difficult time imaging that, not withstanding the sparkle in my eyes.
i am wondering about the bones. what would it be like to roll dice made of the bones of birds, of fish, and ancient beings petrified by time?
what is reckless? is it the hell of rolling dice made from my own hand or not knowing that the dice are made from my own hand?
No, but I might obscure the pips.
and the difference between erasing and obscuring.....an interesting question.......
One is meanness, the other's a tease.
We never know what the result will be, though we often know what we wish it was (or wish it wasn't). Sometimes the dice does what we want it to, sometimes not. Sometimes we roll only to find that someone has erased the dots...
yes, mwb. and i am realizing that on the occasion that i do roll actual dice, i am holding my breath.....
bh, asked about the board on which the game of dice is played. i am wondering about that image.....
The roll is unobserved than all outcomes are equally possible. The question is would that apply to a face dice.
When they chose to cast for lots for the clothes of Jesus they cast aside free will, did they then accept random or the will of God?
if i roll the dice with my eyes closed, what function do the dice have?
what function does the world have when we sleep?
i'ts what i breathe out into after inhaling from the land of dreams.
When you rolled the dice, aren't you ready to read what does the dots offer ?? Then, couldn't it be a wasted effort to roll the dice?? I couldn't choose to roll dice, because i dun believe in chance, i believe in today's efforts, tomorrow's results....only a farmer who works hard in the farm would get his harvest,although if heaven dun give rain and the harvest couldn't come in....then i believe in a God who provides but He may never be one who provides according to your wants but according to your needs :)....and that, i am very sure :)
i am not one to roll actual dice, unless i am playing a board game...the edges are too hard and uncomfortable in my hand.
yet, i wonder if dice might represent the unknown. at any one time, i can see the dots on one side but never all sides at once. i can picture what side we wish to appear but then another side might show itself and its dots could take me somewhere i had not anticipated.
if you erased the dots, would that take away the illusion that i understood where any one side of the dice might take me?
i'm still considering this question.....it's like rolling dice, tumbling around on the playing board of my mind.
the answer to your question, l.l., is...
i look forward to your next comment.
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