Cartoon by Dave Shrigley
My brother called me yesterday -- one of my four brothers. Most of us siblings don't talk on the phone very much. As a matter of fact, most of us are phone phobic.
Phone phobic.
Strange, that. I've never quite understood the peculiarities of our family, but who ever really understands their own family's oddness. If you've always been in that relationship, it just feels familiar.
As my father has aged and has talked more freely openly and urgently about his experiences in World War II, I've begun to think about Post Traumatic stress and my father's generation. The 50s and 60s are really a classic PTSD scenario:
"PTSD symptoms may include: nightmares, flashbacks, emotional detachment or numbing of feelings (emotional self-mortification or dissociation), insomnia, avoidance of reminders and extreme distress when exposed to the reminders ("triggers"), loss of appetite, irritability, hypervigilance, memory loss (may appear as difficulty paying attention), excessive startle response, clinical depression, and anxiety.
A person suffering from PTSD may also exhibit one or more comorbid psychiatric disorders. These may include clinical depression (or bipolar disorder), general anxiety disorder, and a variety of addictions.
According to DSM-IV, symptoms that appear within the first month of the trauma are not called PTSD but Acute stress disorder. If there is no improvement of symptoms after a month, PTSD is diagnosed. PTSD is divided into three categories: Acute PTSD subsides within three months. If symptoms persist, the diagnosis is changed to chronic PTSD. The third category, delayed-onset PTSD, may occur months, years or even decades after the traumatic event."
Think of the ratcheting up of a high-anxiety culture ever since the 60s. We are a PTSD culture, and a great many people in the culture are affected.
This is one of Wm. Blake's paintings/drawings. Cain and Abel. The consequences of the act that pursues you.
What is coming at you from the one or ones that you have trusted?
The metaphor, the feeling, the dynamic that dooms us to betray ourselves, our deepest convictions, our friends, our loved ones.
These archetypes roll around inside of us somewhere and generate dreams and nightmares and impulses and feelings and intuitions. We share them.
Welcome to another year of EFM. I guess it's Bible Study, but not really. It's more like, opening yourself up for revelation.
We'll just call it that for now.
Or, I'll understand it , but as an outside, an expatriate, and American , living in France.
You SPEAK the language, but do you DREAM in the language?
No?
Well, you don't because you didn't grow up there. Your inner mythology has hammers and nails and ladders and ancient dirt basements and TVs with two stations that sign off at 11p.m. with the national anthem. Your inner myth making apparatus is not about the machines and the gleaming humming things that now confound you. It's more about forests and strange animals with no names.
The performance for "time and place" was on Friday, July 27th, 2007. It began at 8pm and ended at 2:30am. The night's event was entitled fair|fair|fare and included not only my piece, but David Dotson's "Benjamin's Dream" as well as Cynthia Brinich-Langlois's "Wishing Well". fair|fair|fare also incorporated an elaborate shrine dedicated to the late Tammy Faye-Baker as well as various other activities stretched over Elsewhere's dominion.
"time and place" (the link)
The Participants:
(1) Madam Anna- Teller of Fortunes/Daughter of Frued
(2) Chris Lineberry- Gatekeeper of tent. Primary duties included allowing one guest in at a time & escorting guests in and out of the "fortune therapist" tent.
(3) Any free person or animal who wished to have an intimate session with Madam Anna. This amassed to 20 humans, 1 dog and 2 pet rats.
The Performance for "Time and Place" included the following articles:
(1) the Elsewhere tent- the location where the each session occured
(2) 2 chairs- one for Madam Anna and one for the guest
(3) a projector- which showcased the animation and provided a platform for thoughts, feelings and fantasies to be cultivated.
(4) a mouse- controlled the visuals on the projector/Utilized by both the guest and Madam Anna
(5) a bell- indicated when the session was complete as well as encouraged the fortune to come true.
(6) a signature book- used to verify that a guest participation as well as acknowledging confidentiality of the session.
(7) 2 bottles of wine- offered to each and every guest who entered the tent. (only 1 refusal)
The Rules for participating in a session with Madam Anna included the following:
(1) Breach of Confidentiality. Whatever is said or done in the tent, must stay in the tent.
I was just looking over some photos that Jennifer Schmidt sent me via the world wide web and look what I came across. Voila. The harmonious act of cataloguing the bin. Oh, the memories. It really did happen. I was beginning to think it was all a delusional methodological dream. now i just need an after shot...entropy at best. yes, yes i know the inevitable cycle of chaos and order. What goes up must come down..blah blah blah. We've heard it all before.
This is the link to my project "time and place".
http://www.giantfirefly.com/timeandplace
well it's back to the blog. i am downstairs at the elsewhere round table and yes i am ready for it. i sware i am going to do this. blogging is fun and everyone else just loves it. but here i am blogging blogging about the blog blogging blogging blogging blogging. i just want some more friends in my neighborhood. why wont you be my friend. is it because i seem desperate for you to be here connected to me somehow someway. yes. lets blog away. let's be friends and blog.
