From: Platt Holden (pholden@sc.rr.com)
Date: Mon Dec 13 2004 - 15:17:19 GMT
Hi MSH,
Great post! A keeper! As you know, my take on "code of art" is simply
"pursuit of beauty in all endeavors." There's an ordinary way to drive a
bus and a beautiful way, as you so beautifully described. Your post shows
how to reach for the "aesthetic" in the aesthetic continuum. Many thanks.
Best,
Platt
> msh says:
> Yeah, I should have said everything we do is art, but some of our
> doin's are more artful than others. Driving back from breakfast this
> morning, my LTC and I discussed this very idea. I suggested there's art in
> everything we do, as long as we do everything as if God was watching over
> our shoulder. She laughed a little, because she knows I don't believe in
> God, per se.
>
> She drives buses for Seattle Metro, so when she realized I was sort
> of serious, she asked what's artistic about driving a bus? I said
> think of the driver who slides smoothly in and out of traffic, who
> starts and stops without a jerk, never misses a stop, opens and
> closes the door at the perfect moment, who arrives and departs never
> an instant too early or too late. When you drive like that you have
> a sense that it's not you who's doing the driving, and you're right. Now
> compare that driver to one who accelerates rapidly and breaks sharply,
> jerking passengers out of their seats, who's always off- schedule and so is
> rushing or waiting, who fumes at other drivers and his own passengers. The
> first is in tune with his environment, and has God at his shoulder; the
> other is alone and at odds with everything. The first is performing his
> task more artfully than the second.
>
> I finished with "It doesn't matter whether you stack cans in a
> grocery aisle, or drive a bus, or pound a dent out of a fender, or
> fight fires or raise children. Everything is as artful as you make
> it." The rest of the way home she was silent but smiling.
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