"Learn Something"

"You may see the world around you devastated by evil lunatics..."

 "The best thing for being sad," replied Merlyn [to young Arthur]... "is to learn something.
That is the only thing that never fails.

"You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world around you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honor trampled in the sewers of baser minds.
There is only one thing for it then--to learn.

"Learn why the world wags and what wags it.
That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting.
Learning is the thing for you."

--T. H. White, The Once and Future King (1958)

I'd brought home a donated early edition of this book a while ago.
I haven't read it since I was young, when I loved the stuff about the boy Arthur and Merlyn, his teacher.

I totally missed its grown-up aspects ("the world around you devastated by evil lunatics" ? ), and that it is "a sad and lonely and beautiful book that transforms the old and venerable Arthurian legend into a philosophical examination of the uses of power and violence, both personally and politically. It is a little painful to read in places, because White’s loneliness and confusion feel so palpable..."

--"Why The Once and Future King Is Still the Best King Arthur Story Out There", Constance Grady, Vox, 2017.
____________________

Sunday noon.
I'm sitting outside while bink naps in my bed. She came over for our usual Sunday morning coffee, but she was so sleep-deprived she was almost nonsensical, and I insisted lie down for a while.
She hates naps, but she was so tired she agreed--and immediately fell  asleep.

But before she laid down, she dressed Fog City in a summer play suit. (Sometimes the bears like to wear clothes, and sometimes they don't.)
So that's a good day's work.

What I consciously want to learn this summer is printmaking.
I got back on Instagram after a year+ away because that's the best place to look at art-makers, and especially I am looking at relief printmakers. They're inspiring.

Am I deluding myself to think I'd enjoy carving  a pattern from this old photo of mine? I picture it all chunky and wrong.
(I admire the precise precision of some printmakers but wouldn't want to emulate them. Want to? Would never be able to!)

I don't have to wait for the class to start--that's not for ten days. I'll give this a try.
A thing about printmaking, though, is you get multiple prints. So there's that to ponder---what to do with them?

How much to think beforehand, "Is this something anyone else would want?"

Eh--very little at this stage. I'm learning!
It's for keeping at bay thoughts of trembling anatomy, disordered veins––(or teeth, in my case: the temporary crown is aching)––and evil lunatics taking the world apart.

I want to have guy lines in place when I go back to work in a couple months-- to stabilize me against the buffeting winds of High School.
Art making is a guy line.
Thinking of the students (instead of the system) is another.

(School starts the day after Labor Day--Tuesday, Sept. 3--but I think we special-ed aides have a day of training the week before.)

I just tip-toed inside. bink appears to be passed out.
I'm going to try drawing a pattern of thread now.
I hope ya'll're having a lovely weekend!