53 minutes
minnehaha off-leash dog park
67 degrees
What joy to walk with my son and Delia-the-dog through this beautiful stretch of land beside the river. FWA set the tone by singing an awesome Sonic (video game) song about following your rainbow. Then, as we hiked down the hill beside a chainlink fence — the secret back way to the river that avoids the steps and a lot of the people/dog congestion — I was inspired by the dancing shadows to talk about how everything is always moving slightly in my vision. Almost like pixels, but not quite. FWA said that his vision is like that sometimes. Then he added that many people see that way, enough that it’s referenced (visually) in the video game, Tarkov. We talked about the fallibility of vision and the illusion that many people have about vision as seeing what is actually and exactly there, like looking through a camera lens. This led to a discussion of how most/many people struggle to understand or believe that a table can be there and not there, solid and more space than anything else. Which philosopher talked about the table as not existing? I can’t remember. Next: FWA brought up something he had read or watched about humans as quantum computers.
Just before that, as we lamented the fact that people often don’t have the capacity for holding both the there and the not-there of a desk simultaneously, FWA said, everyone thinks in such rigid ways, or something like that. I pointed out that his very statement was rigid by using the absolute word, everyone.
And then, we encountered Thor. Delia must have known, with her insistence on going down closer to the river, that someone special was there today. Or maybe it was FWA, with his willingness to agree and follow her today when he would normally refuse. Whoever knew, or didn’t, today we hiked down to the river sooner that we usually do and were greeted by the cutest, most wonderful, little ball of milk chocolate fur — a feisty little dog that chased Delia around, dragging his little leash through the sand, while his human giggled with delight. She said that this was his first time at the dog park. Somehow I knew to ask, what is your dog’s name? Thor, she said. Thor?! A perfect name, I think. Later I said to FWA, that was all I needed, my day has been made. Thanks Thor.
For the rest of the walk, I enjoyed hearing the birds and admiring the deep contrast between the rich brown of the trunks with the deepening greens of the leaves, all while listening to FWA describe the video game that came out this morning: Subnautica 2. It sounds very cool and FWA does such a great job of describing it. A flash of a thought/feeling: FWA is meant to make (at least one) amazing video game. The task: how to help him get to a place (mentally, physically) where he can do this.
As we left the dog park, I felt gratitude for getting to be at this park this morning with FWA and Delia and Thor, and hardly any bugs!
holes and flowers
I’ve decided I’m not finished with my shredded paper blooms, so I started working on more. I made some with no orange, then one with an orange dot the shape of my working central vision, then one that was all orange with the circle with the word of the poem at its center. Oh — I like this! Could I make an entire meadow of these flowers, mixing in the word blooms with other blooms?
I like these flowers and am excited that I was able to come up with this idea. I like how they look and the idea of the shredded word bloom as metaphor for reading and the relationship between word and meaning — taking the essay and literally shredding it, then constructing something new out of it.
a flash: As I making the blooms, jabbing the pin into the paper shreds, I thought about the collecting of butterflies and other bugs and then pinning them in a box to display. Not sure what to do with that, other than remember it for some possible future Sara.
When I showed it to Scott, he liked how the green pin in the center of the white circle looks like an eye. That wasn’t totally intentional, which is very cool. I like how it’s an eye, too!