Art + Math = Identity Crisis

One of my favorite* pieces in the new exhibition at my workplace is a large fan made of combs on the floor by Sonya Clark. It's beautiful, for one thing. It has a lot of very striking resonances, and I find new things to like about it each time. Plus, it's placed next to a giant tapestry made of hair, and who doesn't love clever juxtapositions?

But now, I have a problem. This piece has a feature that I didn't notice until someone brought it to my attention. And now that I see it, I don't know what to do.

At the reception, someone pulled me aside. He was very excited. He said, "That piece on the floor, how many combs are in it?" I said I didn't know. He suggested we have a contest, like a guess the number of jelly beans in the jar type thing, and I said the idea had come up before.

Then, he said this: "You know, it's a beautiful example of a binary tree."

I hate math. When I had to write a press release template, I made it about my hatred of math. I have a who, what, where, why and how much for my math hatred, and an "About Math" section (About Math: I hate it). Got it?

I can pretty much instantly remember the year LIFE magazine was founded (and what was on the cover, and who took the photograph), but math terms tend to be buried deep, probably under the pile of embarrassing moments I acquired during middle school, tucked away in some neglected corner of my brain that I'd rather not visit again. In any case, they're very hard to find, if they're even there at all.

The man must have sensed that binary trees are not exactly in my memory's immediate recall.

He sighed, and I got the feeling that maybe he had brought this up with someone else earlier, with similar results. Maybe he's a math teacher. "Binary trees. You know, each branch doubles. See? it starts with one comb, then it doubles each branch. two combs, four combs..."

"Eight combs! sixteen combs!" I shrieked like a three-year-old who just learned to spell her name. "Er..I hadn't noticed it before. How interesting."

He smiled. "Oh, it's quite obvious."

The thing is, seeing the binary tree in the piece makes it even more beautiful. It adds something (get it?). The man was right to be excited. There's a precision and pattern to Sonya Clark's piece, and he knew exactly why. But it's math. So I should hate it, right?

I don't know. Even the term "Binary tree" is beautiful. Maybe there's something to the beauty of mathematical precision.

*I have about 15 other favorite pieces in this show.

Tolle, Lege

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"How Long O Lord, to wait

Beside this open gate?

My sheep with many a lamb

Have entered, and I am

Alone, and it is late." -John Banister Tabb, "The Old Pastor."

I pulled an Augustine and opened to a random page of an American poetry anthology. That's what drew my eye first. I wonder if he wrote it before or after going blind.

"Your brain peaks at 18. After that, it starts to deteriorate." God help the person who learns that after turning 19. I think I heard it first in elementary school. God help the teacher who teaches that fact year after year. Mine was 50, at least.

I got the American poetry anthology from my grandparents last night, at my grandmother's 79th birthday party. They're giving stuff away; they think they're dying soon, despite their good health. The anthology is part of a "home education program" in American literature. Poetry, Short Stories, Short Novels, Literary Essays, and the Key. The Key tells you what to read and when. It's the professor, but it's showing its age more than anything else in the collection. After all, according to the Table of Contents, Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot, Archibald MacLeish, and e.e. cummings are all still alive. Damn.

Now, the Key teaches you a canon comprised of dead men, many of whom were still alive and producing when deemed worthy of the course. There are some women in there, but they're almost all dead, even to the Key. I guess the Key liked dead women better than living ones. I bet the Key and Gogol would have been pals.

I'm going to take the course with Professor Key. There are even a list of questions I can answer about each text:

Does Whitman's celebration of himself in "Song of Myself" seem arrogant, egotistical, or a justifiable acceptance of himself and the world he found himself in?"

Masters' poems have a prose quality. Explain.

Crane is an ironic poet. Write an essay (350 to 400 words) on this subject.

Explicate "In a Station of the Metro"

Many of the images in "Preludes" are ugly. Does this mean that they are unpoetic?

Does the play involve the American experience in any clearly recognizable way? Explain.

Are the characters mere types or are some of them, at least, fairly complicated?

Write an essay (600-700 words) entitled The American Short Story Since Crane.

... I don't think I would have been a very good student in this class.

In Bible-related music news

The Mountain Goats are releasing a new album on Oct 6. Each song is named after A BIBLE VERSE!

They're "12 Hard Lessons The Bible Taught Me, Kind Of."

You can read more and listen to "Genesis 3:23" at listendammit.com

here's the complete listing of songs, with links to the verses:

1 1 Samuel 15:23 (which is one of my favorite verses)
2. Psalms 40:2
3. Genesis 3:23
4. Philippians 3:20-21
5. Hebrews 11:40
6. Genesis 30:3
7. Romans 10:9 (This is #1 for most pointed out to me by Born Again Christians I've interviewed)
8. 1 John 4:16
9. Matthew 25:21 (Which apparently is a favorite of inspirational Christian image makers)
10. Deuteronomy 2:10
11. Isaiah 45:23
12. Ezekiel 7

Christ, Save me!

I've started to undertake a major overhaul of how I spend money, influenced in no small part by spending a wonderful week with Libby, who runs Whittled Down.

But also, secretly? It's started to make me think about Christian financial theory. That's right. You heard me.

Deut 28:12 - "that you will lend to many nations, but will borrow from none."

Aside from justifying a large portion of Christian society's anti-Semitism, this quote is also one basis of modern Christian finances.

Among the various websites covering such rousing and relevant topics as "Should You Take a Pay Cut for a Ministry Related Position?" (Answer: Yes. Unless it means you can't support your family.) and "Is Insurance Scriptural?" (Answer: Yes, because otherwise you might not be able to support your family.), there's a wealth of information on why going into debt is bad, how credit cards try to fool you into doing it, and how to get yourself out of it responsibly.

I've never been in debt. I pay off my credit card purchases as soon as they post online. My parents supported my college education. I read this book:

But also, I had a two-hour long conversation with a couple fundamentalists about why they only pay fully and in cash for anything they buy. There's no more secure way to become tethered to worldly things than to go into debt for them. Owe someone because they saved the life of your kid? Sure. Owe them because you want a new car? Not really.

...not unless it prevents you from providing for your family.

Since I have no family for whom I need to provide, I've taken a slightly different approach. I *finally* opened an ING Direct savings account, because a promised $25 bonus (which was promptly posted in my account) lured me in. I downloaded a massive spreadsheet to categorize all my spending. I'm waiting at least a week before buying ANYTHING. And I'm using Freecycle and Craigslist (the free section) as my new favorite window-shopping places.

I might even make bread tonight. I'll have to get make some red wine to go with it.

edit: It occurred to me that I really should include something about Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping, but I think that deserves a post unto itself. 

Appendix:  

The spreadsheet I downloaded (which, ahem, I can use with openoffice. Libby is now obsessed with this spreadsheet. Be careful.)

List of Scriptural references to finances (courtesy of crown.com)

Freecycle

a really interesting and useful blog on saving money that maybe doesn't love Christ

ING Direct "electric orange" checking and "orange savings" -- to get the $25, you have to be a new customer, deposit at least $250,  use a referral code from someone who already has an account (hint hint. if those don't work, comment). 

 

 

Bathing Beauties + Reluctant Thawing

When my job became the internet, I lost interest in spending my free time 'round these parts.  

Here's what's going on off the internet: 

There are drug busts at the end of my bucolic West End street.  If I park at that end of the street and get out of my car in a dress, men yell things at me in Spanish.  The road that runs east-west, connecting my street to other streets like mine, isn't safe for me alone at night.  

The other end of my block has two large Victorian houses that, until recently, had matching OBAMA and END THE WAR IN IRAQ yard signs.  Kids ride bikes down the double-wide street until their parents call them in for bedtime.  Neighbors stop to chat with each other while walking their Labrador Retrievers. The most recent eventful moment on that end was the removal of an enormous dead tree.  

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I missed my two favorite parts of spring while in Santa Fe, visiting Libby (it was worth it): when the leaves on trees are still pale, delicate, and translucent, and when everything finally starts to have smells again after freezing up all winter.  I jumped right into the annual springtime problems: should I get an air conditioner for this summer? Why don't I own any summer clothes I actually like? Where's my allergy medication? 

And, of course: why don't they make bathing suits for women like they used to in the good old days?
(which are, in my mind, c. 1920)

EDIT: They do, but they're mostly hideous. 

I wouldn't mind that hat, either.  

metronome beat

I get to write while a nice boy plays classical guitar in my bedroom. I could get used to this.

Interesting.

I usually hate spring. I detest bugs, and spring means bugs. My strongest pangs of longing are associated with snow, and falling leaves.

Until now.

This spring, I am having some serious flashbacks to France. I mean, when your first thought upon seeing a new pretty spring day outside is "today would be a perfect day to walk and take photographs in the vineyard fields," how could you not?

My FSA photo. On the way to St. Andre-de-Sagonis
The crucifixion, fields outside of Lagamas

Lived right around this area.