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A Beautiful Mind

I go to the San Francisco Herb Company for my spices.  Not only do they sell their products in bulk, but the store manager, Greg High, has been a friend for many years.  I like to visit Greg at his store.

Greg plays the didjeridu and is an avid painter.  He had brought a book to Clarion once to share it with me.  It was an art book of Australian Aboriginal paintings.  When I leaved through the book I marveled at the brilliant colors and lines.  Some of the paintings look impressionistic, all of them were bold departure from the traditional dot paintings. The style varied:  a Jackson Pollock here, a Monet there.

“All by one woman.’  Greg told me.  “And she had never left her aboriginal community nor was she influenced by the European masters.”

Her name was Emily Kame Kngwarreye.  And on that day I realized how vast a  universe we have inside the mind.

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The Australians Got It

An Australian cave illustration

Imagine applying for a job and don’t have to fill out a form stating your sex, age, ethnicity and/or sexual orientation.  Your eligibility for hire is based solely on qualification.  Imagine the dynamics this liberation brings.  Will prejudice and injustice of various kinds be erased more quickly than imposing a quota for equal opportunity?  My sister who is visiting from Australia is surprised at all the “junk” we have to include as information.  I am equally stunned that they do not in Australia.

A couple of years ago I went to see Sins Invalid, an eye-opening show on disability, sexuality and gender variant.  I came away with the knowledge that between black and white (male and female) there are shades and shades of gray in between.  Our bodies in all forms and shapes are lovely in their creation.  To classify is to exclude and divide.  The Australians got it, or at least they are moving in the right direction.

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