New series...

 Recently I was talking to a friend about the whole growing up thing.  We agree that it's hard to grow up; to decide want you want to do and can do, figure out how to do it well, how to pay for learning how to do it AND how to get paid for doing it, but more than that, how to set reasonable expectations for yourself.  We both agree that the new culture around making all children feel equal is ridiculous- ie. sports teams not having a team captain so nobody's feelings get hurt, or giving everyone the same expectations or everyone a turn to do something... it creates a culture where children (and 20 and 30 something year olds) don't acknowledge that we all have strengths AND weaknesses.  How can you grow up and be successful when you've never gotten honest feedback, and you've been taught that the world is fair and equal all the time?  Why didn't I get hired for that job?  I'm awesome, and good at everything... just like everyone else?  This is not a competition-less world, and instead of teaching children that competitiveness is bad, perhaps we should teach them how to be better, kinder, more humane and realistic players (and how to learn from losing.)

 

As she said "You CAN be anything you want, but you can't be everything."  Well, thank you Abby, for perfectly summing up my thoughts on my new body of work, which is all about the expectations I set for myself... which aren't always realistic and reasonable... (ie. I will never be patient- like, really NEVER, and I will probably never have perfect balance, flexibility, harmony, and, oh, a QUIET MIND, like those amazing yogis who teach my class.  If you were in my brain, you'd understand why meditation is so, so, so hard for me...)

Speaking of realistic and reasonable, above is the first draft of a print that I started last week... and this week, when someone smashed into my car (and did about $4,000 of damages), I began to think about how I need to work on forgiveness.  Let's just say this print is me working on forgiveness.  Remember, I can't be EVERYTHING... but I'm working on being forgiving... oh and that still mind thing... still working on that too...