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Posts Tagged ‘Election’

Wishin’ and Hopin’/ Election Day Edition

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on November 5, 2024| Leave a Comment »

GC Myers- A Prayer For Light

A Prayer For Light— Exiles series

“Of course, there must be lots of Magic in the world,” he said wisely one day, “but people don’t know what it is like or how to make it. Perhaps the beginning is just to say nice things are going to happen until you make them happen. I am going to try and experiment.”

–Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden, 1911

…until you make them happen.

A lot of us wish and hope for better things and a change from those parts of our lives that disappoint us. But until we act on those wishes and hopes, nothing usually happens.

Things stay the way they are. Or go in ways we never wanted to go.

Of course, wishing and hoping can be viewed as the primary stages of making a plan of action or setting a course and goal for the future. And that’s important.

Action without a goal can be as fruitless as wishing and hoping without action.

But the two– the wish and the action– put together can produce a sort of Magic, much as Colin the bedridden boy discovered in The Secret Garden. It’s a Magic that is within our grasp once we realize this fact.

I am going to give a really basic example. Many years ago, when I was in the early stages of my art life, I wished and hoped for a solo exhibit. I had only been showing my work publicly for a very short time, less than two years, so I didn’t have a reputation or name to pave the way. I didn’t expect anything and it would have been easy to shrug it off and do nothing.

But I decided to try and experiment, to act on my wish.

I had been working on my Exiles series, work that was very personal. It was done during the battle my mom faced with cancer, ultimately losing her life to it in November of 1995. I put together a proposal for show of these paintings and introduced myself to the director of the Gmeiner Art Center in Wellsboro, PA, about an hour from my home. She was impressed by the work and the presentation and gave me a solo show that winter featuring the Exiles paintings.

One thing that struck me about this was when a couple of other artists approached me at a local gallery opening around the time the show at the Gmeiner ran. Both were established artists who had been working much longer than I and had actual bodies of work. They seemed kind of envious that I was having this show and asked how I got this show.

My answer was simple.

“I asked for it.”

I could see on their faces that this was a revelation, that this simple action was something they had never thought to do.

You can’t wait for your hopes and wishes to come to you. Sometimes, you have to take the step towards them, to put things in motion and to make Magic happen.

Unfortunately, a lot of us don’t ever get the connection between wishes and actions. And that’s a shame.

Make something happen today. Make some Magic.

Of course, if you read this blog regularly, you probably know that this is all just a setup for playing a song. I thought that today’s words and image would match up nicely with a hit song, Wishin’ and Hopin’, from Burt Bacharach, who died this past week [February, 2023]. This is the 1964 hit version from Dusty Springfield. Though it seems a little dated and she seems a little needy in this song about getting a guy, the premise that it takes action to achieve wishes and hopes is correct: You won’t get him/ Thinkin’ and a-prayin’, wishin’ and a-hopin’

You got to put wishes and hopes into action…

This post ran early last year. As I walked through the woods to the studio in the dark this morning, the chorus from the song Wishin’ and Hopin’ kept rolling through my mind. It seemed like a great song for the nervous anticipation that has been building for this Election Day. The post seemed to match up well with the day as well. Today is the day to put our wishes and hopes into action. It is a day of great privilege and responsibility, one where your vote is equal to the vote of any billionaire. In some places with tight races, it might be worth more.

Today, put your wishes and hopes into action. Make some magic.

Vote.

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The Mouse in the Box

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on October 17, 2024| 1 Comment »

GC Myers- The Angst

GC Myers- The Angst

Anxiety is the handmaiden of creativity.

I don’t like starting posts with quotes where I am unsure of the attribution, but I like this one regardless of who spoke it first. It is most attributed to either the poet W.H. Auden or legendary animator Chuck Jones. Quite a gap there as far as gravitas is concerned. That makes me believe it was probably from Chuck Jones. Those who liked the sentiment most likely wanted it to be from someone with a little more intellectual weight and Auden did write a Pulitzer Prize winning poem, The Age of Anxiety.

During a quick search I couldn’t find anything that corroborated the Auden or Jones connections. I’ll leave it up to you. My money is on Chuck.

Let’s get back to the quote:  Anxiety is the handmaiden of creativity.

I can only speak for my experience, of course, but I tend to believe that my better work has sometimes emerged from periods of anxiety, times which have often been deep and dark for me. Maybe it is because my mind become sort of hyperactive in those time. It’s bouncing around like a mouse trying to find a way out a box, racing around to examine every possible point of exit even when one doesn’t seem evident.

It’s uncomfortable, to say the least. Actually, excruciating is a better choice of words. But sometimes during these periods where the mind is freewheeling, this mouse finds a way out of the box. Finds something that wasn’t evident to me until I was forced to see it.

Can’t explain it fully and maybe this is all in my mind. Though I think much of the work produced as a result of these times is among my best, there is no objective proof that others see it the same way. As much as I would like others to see what I see in it, it’s okay with me that they don’t.

I know that not all art reveals itself immediately. Time will tell.

There is also a contradictory position to anxiety is the handmaiden of creativity and I am experiencing it at the moment. Sometimes the anxiety is more than the mouse can handle. The racing and searching suddenly stops. The mouse stops it racing and tries to find safety by pressing as deeply into a corner as possible.

I feel a little like the mouse today, frozen in its anxiety.

It is, of course, the anxiety of current events and an election in a couple of weeks that could alter our collective future in in two very different ways. You might say that I shouldn’t be othered by this. There are some out there, those indifferent few, that aren’t affected.

That’s not in my makeup, however. I am forever the mouse in the box. That is not necessarily a bad thing as sometimes good work is produced from it. And maybe eventually that will be the case from this particular time in the box.

But for the moment, I am pressed tightly into a corner of my box, frozen in place as I count down the days.

While we’re in this corner, let’s listen to a song while we wait. It’s a longtime favorite from The Kinks. It seems appropriate for this post. This is 20th Century Man.

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Ain’t Sitting on No Blisters

Posted in Current Events, Quote, tagged , , , , on October 28, 2020| 2 Comments »

Elections belong to the people. It’s their decision. If they decide to turn their back on the fire and burn their behinds, then they will just have to sit on their blisters.

― Abraham Lincoln

The US Elections Project anticipates that this year’s election could see a turnout of 65% of eligible voters casting ballots. That would be the highest turnout in well over a hundred years, going back to 1908.

That’s great news. 

But it raises a burning question: Who are those 35% who won’t cast a vote?

Think about that. We’re having a crucial election that could well dictate our whole way of life in the coming years. The pandemic has shown that who leads this country can make a crucial difference in our everyday life, in how we react and recover from adversity. Or how we avoid it altogether.

Yet a third of the citizens of the nation don’t care enough who heads our government and won’t vote. They are willing to let others make that choice for them, willing to go with whatever the others want.

Do these people live their whole lives this way? 

Voting is literally the least a citizen can do to participate in the affairs of the nation. It can make the difference between leading a nice, quiet life or furiously fighting an out of control fire for years to come. 

Heed old Honest Abe’s words: Don’t turn your back to the fire.  

Do your duty.

Vote.

Oh, and my personal suggestion is that you VOTE BLUE.

Note the blue waves in the painting at the top. 

But do what you will and just vote.

 

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Shock the World

Posted in Current Events, Opinion, tagged , on November 6, 2018| Leave a Comment »

++++++++++++++

“I don’t look to the teachings of Jesus for what my political beliefs should be.”

–Jerry Falwell, Jr., NY Times Interview

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I think the quote above from Jerry Falwell, Jr. pretty much sums up the importance of this election. If a man who has based his whole life and persona on the teachings of Jesus is willing to set them aside for political expediency, there is a lot at stake. Not being able to adhere to those teachings– concepts like compassion, charity and truth– to uphold his political preferences says even more about what we are facing.

Today’s election is, above all else, a referendum on whether we continue to follow our worst inclinations into the ditch of history or whether we can steer ourselves back to the road we have long followed, one that marks us as a generous, compassionate and welcoming people.

We cannot survive long as a nation that is based on policies that reward greed, hate, fear, corruption, victimization, and deceit.

A lot of people say, “Sure, all of these bad things are taking place but look at the economy, look at the numbers!”

Myself, I knew that when this president* came into office that he would be able to ride the strength of the then percolating economy for maybe two  more years before it began cycling downward. The GOP made a calculated risk in enacting a massive tax break that was designed solely for the wealthiest among us, believing that supercharging the economy for the short term would blow them past this election before the consequences of such an irresponsible action would begin to appear.

But the bill will soon come due. The economic signs are appearing now. Tax revenues are down. Deficits are ballooning. Job growth, while still fairly strong, has lessened in the past two years and will continue to do so, partly because with decreased immigration, there is not the available population to sustain continued job growth.

To think that an economy at the apex of its cycle is enough to overlook the damage being done to our nation’s citizens along with its reputation and honor is a massive mistake.

Today is an opportunity to begin to set things right. It is a chance to shock the world and forcefully tell the other strongman autocrats out there that we reject their worldview.

To show that we deserve to be the beacon of hope once again.

To say that we can be better than this.

Vote.

Vote blue.

Shock the world awake.

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Vote Progress

Posted in Current Events, Opinion, tagged , , on November 2, 2018| Leave a Comment »

We are coming up on the final weekend of what promises to be a pivotal election in the history of our country. It is ugly right now with a president* spinning out of control, spewing a constant and wide river of lies, fear mongering and racial slurs, both of the dog-whistle and overt variety. It is a campaign based only on fear, division, and threats, one that needs to create enemies to fear and despise. Instead of of offering a unifying vision, one party looks to aggressively suppress the vote. There is not a positive vision or an iota of hope involved. It is a tremendously dangerous onslaught and it is positively un-American and un-democratic.

It made me think about my own beliefs and how I was viewing this election. I found that while there is fear and anger driving my response to this election cycle, it is my liberal beliefs that still inform my actions. They are overwhelmingly positive positions that aim for greater equality and an even playing field for all people in this country. They are positions that are looking ahead to a better country and a better world for everyone, not just the wealthiest and the privileged.

Positions that say how we treat the least among us says the most about us.

It reminded me of a post from back around this time in 2012. It lists how liberal thought has created most of the benefits of modern life that many of us now take for granted. These are things that were accomplished through brutal, and sometimes lethal, battles fought by those with progressive ideals.

This country’s greatness is based on the idea of the idea of America and that is a product of progressive thought.

You must vote in this election. To not be involved is to cede your future to others who may have a darker future in mind. I can’t tell you how to vote. You vote for the future you want. I will tell you that I am voting for a more hopeful and inclusive future. Progressive and looking forward.

Here’s my post from 2012:

*******************

 

Republicans have been accused of abandoning the poor. It’s the other way around. They never vote for us.

–Dan Quayle

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I don’t know why I used the quote above from Dan Quayle except that it made me laugh when I stumbled across it. This has been a particularly long and tough political season and Quayle’s clueless words made me step back from it a bit to give a chuckle. As though the poor owed the GOP something!

Though I consider myself an independent, I am definitely liberal in my political leanings and always have been. There have been points in my life, especially now in the time of the ideologues, when liberalism has been portrayed as some sort of anarchistic/atheistic/communistic movement with the word liberal being thrown about  as an insult. That bothers me because I have always been proud of the accomplishments of those people who came before me who carried the banner of progressive thought with honor.

Early Suffrage Poster

They were extraordinarily brave people who spoke out against the outrages of the day that stood in direct contradiction to the liberal belief in equality and liberty for all. They were the abolitionists of the 1800’s fighting the heavily moneyed institution of slavery. They were the suffragettes  who fought so that women might have voting equality and the union organizers of the early 1900’s who fought for safer working conditions and fair pay and  against child labor. They were the people, the anti-Fascists, who stood against the authoritarian movements of Europe in  the 1930’s and 1940’s. They were the civil rights activists who marched and died so that civil rights were for everyone. They were the environmentalists who brought back the clean water and air we now enjoy. There was a time not too long ago when clean water and air was not a sure thing.

They were the people who sought to clean the stains of these inequalities from our flag and in every case they came up against conservative opposition. There was always a group who tried to maintain the status quo, to protect against what they felt was an attack on their America, even though their America was one based on injustice and inequality. Can you imagine an America without these ideals that Liberalism has championed, a world where the conservative thought of the day had somehow persevered? Sure, it’s easy to say that slavery would have ended or that women would have received the vote anyhow on their own but there was no guarantee. Just the fact that it took until the 1960’s that a hard won Civil Rights Act was enacted is proof of that.

Think how your own life might be different without liberal thought and action. I can guarantee you that it would not be a better life or a better world.

Damn right, I’m a Liberal.

Vote for a positive future. Vote Progress.

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