All That is Art and More

The Culture of Life​
Well, one more school year has passed.  This time with a marked event.  I graduated with my Baccalaureate in Arts for Anthropology.  My concentration was on cultural anthropology with another emphasis on visual anthropology.  I took an extra year on my Baccalaureate to maintain my psychology and math education.  I intend to combine these things to better aid humanity in guiding itself to a more...healthy outlook and society.   I am searching for a school for my master's program.  It is still up in the air as I did not make the cut-off for this coming year's cohort.  Too much has happened, including my dad's death and my husband going in and out of the hospital.  Now I'm out to gain my doctorate.  I haven't finished narrowing down the ideas.  I've just been thinking of areas.  I'll keep you posted along the way.
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As I have been in school low the last five years I have neglected all writing except that which I was graded on, I apologize.  Here I will begin to chronicle the journey to putting numbers to people in a new way.  Here I will declare that I want to mathematically predict psychotic episodes.  I don't know if it is possible or if anyone has even tried.  I can't find anything on it in my searches.  So we are assuming that it has yet to be done.  The idea may morph or configure itself into something more doable until I have the chance to do it or die.  Mainly, it is not the only  project on my stove.  My burners are full and I haven't been able to pick them apart or work with others yet.  

​For those of you who know, the card is intentional. For those of you who don't the two of pentacles is a tarot card signifying the need to balance priorities despite their overwhelming nature.   Things are tight, money and time, and the balance that is struck today may not sustain tomorrow.  But given attention and good effort and all will be well.  Those are the markings of this card, and such is my life.  Competing obligations that gather great weight despite their wanted nature.  Basically I'm really busy but I love it.
Learning the Value of Life
So many times we see people as their job.  That that is the only value they hold in life.  This view leads to depression, on all levels.  Monetarily as well as emotionally.  There are some that are seen as a burden to society and less than others. Life is devalued in this way, and mental illness begins to run pervasively through society.  But there are ways to mitigate the effects of unemployment, homelessness, depression and isolation.  Timebanking. It's not just a social movement its a means by which to control your own life and future. It's a way to break free from depression and expose yourself to new things, new people.

Control, something you often feel you have lost when you're depressed, unemployed or homeless. Timebanking can give that back to you.  If you feel you are an artist, timebanking gives you the freedom to do just that.  All your skills can be used.  Even the skill of listening can be exchanged for hours that can then be used to get something you might need, like a haircut or chiropractic care.    Even a therapist to help with whatever you may need. It allows you to feel accomplished and that lends itself to self esteem, raising your quality of life.

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Discovering the Beauty in Life

Discovering the Beauty in Life

Especially when living in a large city one can forget how to see the beauty that is life. All the fine details around the edges appear to fray and cause a discourse within each of us negating the beauty that is life. Each experience, each emotion, is a beauty that adds to the comfort and form of life itself. It is the artist's mission to view and express that beauty for all to see. Even the painful things, and often things others want to hide from or wish didn't exist. Perhaps these items are most in need of being shown.


A beauty exists in all emotions, even the ones we deem negative. Without one, the other could not even exist. In that balance exists beauty. Pull away from the edges and view the whole. This way you can see the beauty that is life, its richness and depth. Take some time to see the world in all its glory. If it becomes difficult, look at it through someone elses eyes. Take a tour of a museum or the local gallery.

The Necessity of Play

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The largest necessity there is in the world is the necessity of play. Playing is just as imperative to life as breathing and eating. I feel that the memory of playing somewhere in the back of my brain. Just not how it was done. What the process was. Yet I do know that you can't break it down logically. You either can or cannot. So it is, in my depression, that I’ve lost my ability to play. I fear my own imagination. (Or lack thereof) That there is either nothing left, or that it is all too warped for use.

When first in San Francisco, somehow I had healed, I was happy and confident, and felt secure and accomplished. I found myself Happy, with hope and the ability to play. There is no recreating that. The only thing I can do is grow through the old wounds that arose. The ones I hadn’t even realized were there. I spent a lot of brain power choosing to remember the awful things that happened to me, knowing that was the only way to work through them, to rebuild myself in an image that I respected.

Making a Difference in Life

All we want in life is to make a difference.  If not in another's life then at least in our own.  That becomes difficult when you're depressed.  But depression doesn't have to stop you. There are opportunities all around us.  We only need to believe they exist.  I know this isn't an easy feat when depressed, seeing opportunity.  It is, however, possible.

There are things in your life that make you smile.  These are the things we need to hold onto. After all life comes down to control.  A necessary illusion we all hold.  And change is scary. But change is the only cosmological constant, and the most necessary for life. Without change, there is no 'difference' we can make.  So I say we embrace change in all its forms.

The Success of Self

We can all be more successful if we drive out fear with action, uncertainty with belief, and keep moving forward. Let's learn to appreciate all our successes in life, not just the tangibly countable ones. Allow for defeat and learn from it.

Find the time to reward yourself. It may be more difficult, but try to find the best in others as well as yourself. Don't stick in your indecision. Create an atmosphere for yourself that allows you to decide. It only takes a few moments each day to lead a successful life. I start by considering what I consider a successful life.