I wish I could create a series of artworks centered on relationships and conversations between friends and families. Why must every story focus on murder or some sort of deception? I’d like to hear plain people talk to each other in earnest about daily matters, pleasantly. People getting along. Harmonious living; simple, human interactions.
I hope this idea does not sound boring to you. I hope that whatever you imagine as an example of the art that I’m trying to invoke intrigues you. If you’re not immediately pleased with the notion, at least I hope you find it potentially attractive. For I’d like to change your taste so that it’s more like mine.
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But I’d also be happy if my own taste matched the popular taste. I wish I liked war. I wish I liked physical violence. Unfortunately, I am indifferent to any type of competitive activity — not even intellectual contests move me. I’m eager to lose, for then at least the ordeal is over.
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Here in the U.S. we have a lot of stores that sell goods. It’s true that many of these goods are bad, but I want to steer this sermon away from negativity, so let me highlight only the best goods that are for sale:
Flowers are always nice to display around your house. Small statues are also something I like to see. Fresh fruit in bowls. Drapes, lamps, hats and wigs.
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Did you ever notice how the appearance of any given item improves once it has been embedded with gems? I’d like to embed gems everywhere. The only thing that stops me from doing so is that gems are hard to find. And they’re usually pricey. So whoever’s stockpiling all the expensive jewelry should open up their treasure trove to the public and allow us all to go in there and freely use whatever is lying in storage. We can then cause the world to look resplendent, since we will ornament every detail of its atmosphere with diamonds, emeralds, rubies, and topazes. (I wish I knew more names of precious stones — right now I could only think of those four.) I’m also in favor of employing gold, silver, and bronze tastefully in all of our embellishments.
And there are certain types of wood that have a ravishing scent. Let us therefore construct various elegantly shaped objects out of these fine-smelling woods; then position them so that there’s always one nearby wherever people stroll. Finally, relegate any leftover scraps to the chipper and use the result to fill ornate basins.
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I’m writing these thots on Christmas Day, by the way.
Someone should make a comic book about a superhero who helps people find bait for fishing. This man or woman could dress in a tight outfit. — Imagine a sad, lonely fisherman sitting on the dock without any minnows to string on his line. Now imagine an intelligent and successful fisherwoman who’s being denied access to the graveyard, where all the good worms live, because the current systems of power are outdated and evil.
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And, hey, I have an idea: Let’s stop giving toys to kids. That way, they will need to learn how to go outdoors and find a tree branch and play with that. They can douse it with ketchup and pretend that it is bleeding.
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Lastly, we should bring back sackcloth, for all of us who want to send a signal with our attire that we are against absolutely everything about the present generation. I would like to see the number of people dressed in sackcloth growing every day. It should be a worldwide movement.
Now I leave you with these lines from Isaiah (3:24), not as a prophecy but as a description of what already happened and is still happening — we are living in it:
And it shall come to pass, that instead of sweet smell there shall be stink; and instead of a girdle a rent; and instead of well set hair baldness; and instead of a stomacher a girding of sackcloth; and burning instead of beauty.
P.S.
Last night I reread the essay “Benjamin Franklin” from D. H. Lawrence’s Studies in Classic American Literature, and it fortified me against this holiday season.
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