VirusHead

I would like to see someone do some contemporary intellectual work on how indirect communication – communication by signals and pointers and gestures rather than direct statement – produces the best art.

The pure and simple truth is rarely pure and never simple. ~ Oscar Wilde

Communication whose style and content is dictated by constraints imposed by the rules of a scene is more creative, even more joyful, even if the realities of the life that produces the thought is very difficult.

Jean Baudrillard did some of this work in bemoaning the loss of the scene itself, which is the stage for the distinction between good and evil that we all navigate. Without the binary antipodes of cultural constraint, do we really find motivation to do anything of importance?

A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it. ~ Oscar Wilde

Art communicates what cannot be expressed by other means. There is more truth in fiction and in art than in any amount of moralizing speech.

When homosexuality could not be spoken, thinkers and artists – and even politicians – discovered ways to indicate what was already known, and to do it without speaking it. We love to bust these out into the open, but the art was all about indications and play.

It made great art. Plays, paintings, poetry, speeches, philosophies…

Oppressed people can create the most amazing stuff – amazing music, amazing fiction. Think of Russian novelists. Think of black gospel music compared to the dirge-like church music of privileged white colonizers. It’s true that abject poverty can also denigrate people below any ability to create, too, but among them… always a genius, a prophet.

Sometimes I wonder if that’s not at least part of what is meant by not being “of this world.” The rewards of this world – money, power, and so on – are rewards in themselves. They are rewards for now, to be enjoyed now. But that’s all.

The rewards of those who are censored and constrained and even oppressed are, by their very structure and nature, more complex – more insightful – more subtle – more deeply real. When you care enough to work around tough rules of expression, you find a way – like life itself always finds a way.

It will be a marvelous thing – the true personality of man – when we see it. It will grow naturally and simply, flower-like, or as a tree grows. It will not be at discord. It will never argue or dispute. It will not prove things. It will know everything. And yet it will not busy itself about knowledge. It will have wisdom. Its value will not be measured by material things. It will have nothing. And yet it will have everything, and whatever one takes from it, it will still have, so rich will it be. It will not be always meddling with others, or asking them to be like itself. It will love them because they will be different. And yet, while it will not meddle with others, it will help all, as a beautiful thing helps us by being what it is. The personality of man will be very wonderful. It will be as wonderful as the personality of a child. In its development it will be assisted by Christianity, if men desire that; but if men do not desire that, it will develop none the less surely. For it will not worry itself about the past, nor care whether things happened or did not happen. Nor will it admit any laws but its own laws; nor any authority but its own authority. Yet it will love those who sought to intensify it, and speak often of them. And of these Christ was one. “Know Thyself” was written over the portal of the antique world. Over the portal of the new world, “Be Thyself” shall be written. And the message of Christ to man was simply “Be Thyself.” That is the secret of Christ. ~ Oscar Wilde

The traditions of men serve to stabilize communities, but they also create boundaries that are made to be flirted with – deconstructed. As you toe the line, you doodle all around that line. Without a line, you can’t… doodle.

It’s not brazen. It’s not open. It’s not honest. And yet – isn’t it more truthful to experience? Doesn’t it really address you all the more forcefully?

It does me.

Tell all the Truth but tell it slant—
Success in Circuit lies
Too bright for our infirm Delight
The Truth’s superb surprise
As Lightening to the Children eased
With explanation kind
The Truth must dazzle gradually
Or every man be blind— ~ Emily Dickinson

“…music is the perfect type of art. Music can never reveal its ultimate secret. This, also, is the explanation of the value of limitations in art. The sculptor gladly surrenders imitative colour, and the painter the actual dimensions of form, because by such renunciations they are able to avoid too definite a presentation of the Real, which would be mere imitation, and too definite a realisation of the Ideal, which would be too purely intellectual. It is through its very incompleteness that art becomes complete in beauty, and so addresses itself, not to the faculty of recognition nor to the faculty of reason, but to the aesthetic sense alone, which, while accepting both reason and recognition as stages of apprehension, subordinates them both to a pure synthetic impression of the work of art as a whole, and, taking whatever alien emotional elements the work may possess, uses their very complexity as a means by which a richer unity may be added to the ultimate impression itself.” ~ Oscar Wilde

Today’s blog post is about March birthdays and suburban momhood, and is brought to you by the letter “M.”

The month of March marks the birthdays of a disproportionate number of my kith and kin. Today alone, there are five!

One of these is my (younger) brother Michael, who is claiming to be “officially old as dirt.” When questioned about what exactly that makes me, he mentioned cosmic aether (grin).

So – Happy Birthday to all the March birthday sweeties! May you be surrounded with love, light and laughter! I love you.

March! March begins with “M”! Muah-hahahaha.

This last Thursday, we went to Ben’s school recital. Maybe it was just the mood I was in after having to arrange a whole bunch of things in a hurry before we got there – I was tired and a little punchy – but I really had to concentrate on not letting myself burst into wild raucous laughter. It’s all so unreal. The only thing that centered me at all was Ben, catching my eye and smiling at me. I love that kid. Only for him could I be dragged into such a scene.

It was held at the nearby middle school, which has a bit more room than the elementary school he attends. Middle school! Middle school begins with “M”! Muah-hahahaha.

Anyway, this was a big favor, unprecedented I think, and so everyone was being grateful and welcoming and sweet, but it was all slightly off. The principal, really a smart and lovely woman, had that warm charming “principal voice” on. It’s so over the top, even John was hiding a smile, but I can see the reason for it. She really does make the kids feel welcome and secure – and I think it works for most of the parents, too.

As usual, they held the PTA meeting before the performance. They nominated and elected next year’s officers, and approved the last meeting’s minutes, and approved the financial statement – all by the rules, but it certainly wasn’t an environment suitable for asking questions or making motions or anything of the sort. All the parents wanted was to move it along so they could watch the kids! It’s all so pro-forma. One thing that is always very funny is that they totally ignore when anyone in the audience says “Nay.” To be fair, it’s usually children who do, but not always.

I kept threatening to stand up and move that children’s recitals not be used to mandate attendance at the PTA meeting, but John talked me out of it. Move! Move begins with M! Muahhhh-hah-hahaha-hahahahaha.

There was an inspirational reading from a sweet gal that always finds something to share. This time is was from Robert Fulghum’s Uh-Oh. She read a bit of it, and then related it to the parental sense of loss as the kids grow up – and go to middle school. To me, it was clearly the parent’s perspective as it relates to their children, but she was in tears later because evidently the elementary school principal misinterpreted her intent. I assured her that the message was very clear to me, and voiced back to her my sense of the mood, content and intent. It seemed to help a little. I hope so, because although the “inspirational message” is always very sentimental, it always addresses the parents and is fitting to the occasion.

The reason for all the concern was, I think, because next up was the middle school’s assistant principal and he started with “I hope it’s not an ‘uh-oh’ for your children to come to the middle school.” He started trying to talk about school improvements, and tried to project a welcoming stance. However, he wasn’t very adroit in this kind of messaging at all, and he just didn’t have the ability to know when to stop. The more he talked, the more he dug himself in. (What? I didn’t know there were any rumors to be concerned about until just now!) The more he tried to soothe the audience, the more he invoked things that alarmed the parents. It was hilarious. Messsaging! Messaging begins with M! But is it a real word yet? I’m not sure.

They had the traditional pledge of allegiance – under God and all. I know I’m overly sensitive to this issue, but it still bugs me. I know that by the time kids have any real sense of what it means, they don’t have to do it anymore. I shouldn’t get irritated about it. As a comedian – his name escapes me at the moment – recently said, the pledge just functions as a cup of coffee for the kids, a ritual to give them a space to wake up and ready themselves. Ben salutes the flag – it’s not such a big deal. I still don’t salute the flag. My years of explaining why one shouldn’t kind of stuck with me. I noticed once again that a number of other parents don’t salute the flag either. Most, if not all, of this is because they aren’t American; there are a lot of international families in our area. I’ll bet their kids do salute though, and I think that’s inappropriate – even if you do treat a national flag as though it were a sacred object, why would you want someone pledging something that isn’t true for them just to blend in? Sigh.

The music director is really great and they are lucky to have him. He’s kind, enthusiastic and talented. He loves those kids, and they love him. He chooses somewhat challenging music for them to sing, but they really enjoy it. Music! Music begins with “M”! Muah-hahaha-ha-ha.

Ben was nervous about the performance. He asked me to grade him. “A, B, C – I can take it.” He looked so cute, waving his little headball like a muppet (Muppet! Muppet begins with M!), singing his heart out. He was buried in the mass of children, though, and I couldn’t seem to get a good picture.

Ben Recital

There were perhaps five or six songs sung, one of them in Latin. The music director actually had them doing three-part harmony, and syncopated clapping. It wasn’t bad, and although I privately thought that the selection last semester was a bit better, I gave Ben a resounding “A” on his own performance. There were a handful of really talented singers, and the normal number of kids that kind of just stood there, mouthing the words they remembered. Everyone liked the clapping parts, though, even the kids that clearly don’t like to sing, so they are at least getting a sense of rhythms. It’s all good.

The upper grade’s rendition of “The Star Spangled Banner” on the recorder almost made me fall off my chair trying not to burst into laughter. I had completely forgotten about the recorder, and the whole cultural school “thing” about playing the recorder. Does anyone play it after they graduate from public school?

Playing the Recorder

I’m not really cut out to be a suburban mom. All of my reactions seem so out of step with the other parents. If it weren’t for my overwhelming love for this one little boy, I would go into full witchy (that’s mostly with a “w” and not a “b” – and an “m” wouldn’t really make any sense here) mode. But… Mode! Mode begins with M! And MOM! MOM begins and ends with M! Muah-hahahaha-ha-ha (choke).

Well, at least I’m learning to enjoy the humorous aspects of it all.

The blog post was brought to you by the letter “M.” Mmmm-mmmmm. M.

My posts have been less frequent and less original. I’m slipping.

So here I am, thinking about a great train of thought to share. I’m getting a blank. Nada.

I don’t know what to make of the economy except for an unsubstantiated intuition that this is going to be a difficult couple of years regardless of what is done to try to stabilize the situation. That doesn’t really help anyone.

I’m suddenly profoundly uninterested in what should be the media’s very comment-worthy playacting and the simply ridiculous hypocrisy of certain unnamed politicians.

I haven’t had any profound spiritual/creative insights this weekend.

I’ve been playing around on FaceBook too much lately.

I bought two toilets this morning, and I could tell you all about the 2-hour conversation at Home Depot about relative flushing efficiency and amounts of water and the average mass of …. but really, why?

I did some laundry. Yeah. So?

It seems like my thoughts lately revolve around unresolvable issues, so that’s kind of an exercise in futility all by itself. Why rehearse it here?

I did enjoy the full moon. Looked at it for a long time, here and there over the evening.

Fun stuff was all of a social nature:
Veggie Indian dinner with friends.
A co-worker’s birthday lunch.
Neighbor visit – lively conversation and a couple of beers.
Some good conversations on the phone.

My performance review at work was kind of interesting. It was my first one (ever), and I think I did pretty well. There was some unexpected recognition, and even some useful actionables for development.

I couldn’t find a red pen.

I did find a cheat for Nintendo DS.

I committed to sending six odd gifts over the next year.

I’ve not yet called my mom and gramma for the Sunday conversation.

So…. um…. yeah. Not much of a post-worthy nature.

This post isn’t even about nothing, which would be interesting in its exploration of nothingness.

No, this one is just a blank.

Maybe I should take advantage of it and see if I can get into a zone, you know – just kind of staring into the middle distance.

You have got to read this article on the virus at Discover!

How did I miss this before????

Unintelligent Design
A monstrous discovery suggests that viruses, long regarded as lowly evolutionary latecomers, may have been the precursors of all life on Earth
by Charles Siebert, Photography by Jörg Brockmann
From the March 2006 issue, published online March 15, 2006

Now the viruses appear to present a creation story of their own: a stirring, topsy-turvy, and decidedly unintelligent design wherein life arose more by reckless accident than original intent, through an accumulation of genetic accounting errors committed by hordes of mindless, microscopic replication machines. Our descent from apes is the least of it. With the discovery of Mimi, scientists are close to ascribing to viruses the last role that anyone would have conceived for them: that of life’s prime mover. …

The discovery of Mimivirus lends weight to one of the more compelling theories discussed at Les Treilles. Back when the three domains of life were emerging, a large DNA virus very much like Mimi may have made its way inside a bacterium or an archaean and, rather than killing it, harmlessly persisted there. The eukaryotic cell nucleus and large, complex DNA viruses like Mimi share a compelling number of biological traits. They both replicate in the cell cytoplasm, and on doing so, each uses the same machinery within the cytoplasm to form a new membrane around itself. They both have certain enzymes for capping messenger RNA, and they both have linear chromosomes rather than the circular ones typically found in a bacterium.

“If this is true,” Forterre has said of the viral-nucleus hypothesis, “then we are all basically descended from viruses.”

Claverie says, “That’s quite a big jump in our thinking about viruses—to go from their not even being organisms to being all life’s ancestor.” …

“The general public thinks genetic diversity is us and birds and plants and animals and that viruses are just HIV and the flu. But most of the genetic material on this planet is viruses. No question about it. They and their ability to interact with organisms and move genetic material around are the major players in driving speciation, in determining how organisms even become what they are.”

We have been looking for our designer in all the wrong places. It seems we owe our existence to viruses, the least of semiliving forms, and about the only thing they have in common with any sort of theological prime mover is their omnipresence and invisibility. Once again, viruses have altered the way that we view them and, by extension, ourselves. As it turns out, they are not the little breakaway shards of our biology—we are, of theirs.

So it’s not only language…. I’ve been thinking along these lines for a long, long time. It’s so fun to see that I haven’t been the only one. Maybe there’s a contagion-effect among minds, too?

This is very, very exciting scientific research.

Please comment if you know of any new developments!

Jolly Roger of Reconstitution 2.0 has bestowed upon me a very lovely award. It’s been a busy, busy week, but I finally have a chance to post it.

Love Ya Award

These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award.

Jolly Roger is unrelenting in his commitment to speaking the critique that may yet return us to the uniquely American vision of a viable and vibrant free society. He also coins hilarious words. He doesn’t mince those words much, because the issues that he confronts are much too important to soften. His critiques are as thoughtful as they are sharp, so if you can’t argue effectively, you had best vacate the debate. I am honored to be his blogger friend. Big hugz, JR!

As I think about all the people I’ve met through blogging, I have to echo Jolly Roger’s sentiments:

There are some really decent people doing this thing that we do, and quite a few of them reach out to others with kind words, encouragement, and a pat on the back, delivered in HTML. I’d like to recognize some of these folks here, because they certainly deserve the recognition.

I would like to be on record, however, as being in (respectful) disagreement with the characterization of his critically patriotic blog:

Heidi of Virus Head is a long-time friend of this disgusting rag. She’s also very human in her writings, no matter what they are about.

I am indeed pleased to be considered fully human (grin).

So – here are some of the friendly blogs and bloggers upon which I rely.

• Kimmy blogs at Kimmy Sharing Light. The title is apt – she shares the light, even to the droopy-eyed. She’s also become a very fun Facebook friend – always sending little tidbits and extending her beauty through a thousand little kindnesses.
• Vance blogs at Meditations on an Eyeball and at the related Deferral of Meaning. He posts far too infrequently, but there is always a central question or concern that is worth mulling over. Vance is one of the only people I know with whom I am inclined to discuss biblical interpretation. Because his studies are question-driven and a bit existential and postmodern, we speak something close to the same language. Our visions of God might be a bit different, but our paths often intersect in ways that enrich both.
• Darrell blogs at Blog of the Grateful Bear, and I’m grateful for him. He inspires me with hope. He is very service-oriented – truly caring and compassionate. We’re both mystics of a sort, and so we share a love of cats and coffee (as all good mystics ought).
• Amanda blogs at Welcome to the Trueness. She is a tireless worker for issues having to do with our animal friends on planet earth. She also a creative, lively, curious and compassionate woman. I’m glad to count her as a friend.

  She has also started up a business – Lemon Queen Web Design – to support her website design habit. Check it out.

• Kate blogs at ITISI. We met through a series of coincidences. We just kept meeting up, and after a while resistance to synchronicity is futile isn’t it? She is witty and fun and she has a wonderful aesthetic sense – with images, with words, with ideas. I love her blog, and I love her too.
• So, the shining woman and mom known as Judith writes at The Only Thing I Know. She makes me laugh and celebrate. We share a deep love for the nuances and resonances of language. I wish she lived in Atlanta.
• Todd blogs at – and about – Postcards from Hell’s Kitchen. He’s one of the first bloggers that turned up when I started blogging, and we’ve been faithfully following each other’s blogs ever since. I get a vicarious pleasure from his explorations of restaurants and cultural events, and have come to value him very highly as a friend. I also think that he must be an excellent teacher.
• Mark blogs at Left Behind and Loving It. Although we went to graduate school together in Iowa, we didn’t really get to know one another very well at the time. I’ve been enjoying the way Mark thinks since we rediscovered each other recently on Facebook. He’s churchy, but in a good way. It’s a two-for-one friendship too, because his wife Christine is totally cool, too. I still remember their wedding (sniff, sob).

I could go on and on, really. I can think of ten more right off. But because there really are so many terrific blogging friends, and so many friends who have yet to start blogging, I’ll leave this space open. Ask yourself: Are you a good friend and blogger? Are you kind and encouraging to others? Do you offer laughter or wit or authentic questions? If so, claim it!