7 June 2004: Towards a Poor Online Journal

Happy Birthday Kalinica Geminica!

Now you are six!

Or more, even.

Having your birthday in early June... heh... that's just the sort of odd thing a Gemini would do.

Soon you will be here, and I will see you, and this is good, and things that are good are good.

After I write about Geminica's birthday (which I just did), but before I write about other things (which I will soon do), I will mention (which I am doing now) that a change in kennings has occurred in this journal - the character to whom I have been referring as Caterpillar is now going by the kenning of Sherpa. He never cared for the kenning Caterpillar, which I only used for him because it's the kenning Stagewalker uses for him. The Alice in Wonderland reference has seemed increasingly inappropriate; I'm finding that where the work I've been doing with him is leading is quite the opposite of Down the Rabbit Hole. Seems more appropriate to use a kenning that calls to mind Jodorowsky's The Holy Mountain.

I tell you this now because I will mention Sherpa later in this entry, and I won't want to interrupt myself to tell you this then, which is why I'm telling you now.

Now then...

Not writing many journal entries lately. The time has gone to other things. Minor updates to the Aiki Arts site. Comments to the journals of others. Email correspondence. Lila’s bet with Valkyrie led to a good deal of correspondence between Valkyrie and myself, and then to some excellent correspondence with Yoko (one of my favorite people to exchange emails with) – plus a fun but very short-notice load of Photoshop work.

The long-interrupted Inanna Dialogue will soon resume again in this journal, as Lila and I discuss the experiences arising from her bet.

I’ve gone and got myself on a big Grotowski kick, devouring his Towards a Poor Theatre with a relish that non-narrative text rarely inspires in me (the last time was Quinn’s Beyond Civilization, and the time before that was Dobson’s It’s a Lot Like Dancing, which was a very long time ago indeed). As I reassured Sherpa (see - I told you I’d be mentioning him), I’ve no intention of joining the ranks of deluded souls who think they can grasp and duplicate Grotowski’s work by reading about it. I’ve seen too many poor fools try to learn aikido techniques from books, to fall into that sort of stupidity myself.

My interest in Grotowski lies in furthering my understanding of my own work by reading Grotowski’s words about his work and noting the ways in which his perspective on his work might be applicable to my work. Not interested in switching to someone else’s work – just in trying out elements of someone else’s perspective, applying them to the work I’m already doing, and seeing what insights arise.

In other words, I read Grotowski with an eye toward whether his articulations of his ideas on theatre might also function as illuminating articulations of what I’m working on in my aikido. And I’m finding that they often very much do:

“The essential difference between these exercises and yoga is that these are dynamic exercises aimed at the exterior. This exteriorization replaces the introversion typical of yoga.”

“Everything we undertake must be done without too much haste, but with great courage; in other words, not like a sleep-walker but in all consciousness, dynamically, as a result of definite impulses. We must gradually learn to be personally responsible for all we do.”

“It is essential that the body begin the movement which is then taken up by the hands. [The hands] are used to accentuate the body’s objective...”

“There is no perfect type of respiration valid for everyone, nor for all psychical and physical situations... If the actor tries artificially to impose on himself the perfect, objective abdominal respiration, he blocks the natural process of respiration.”

“We must find out what it is that hinders [the student] in the way of respiration, movement, and – most important of all – human contact.”

Time to sleep now. Tomorrow, I’ll try to make the time to write about actual events that have happened in my life recently.

Oh: see the film Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring. Beautiful, beautiful film. One of the best tales of the workings of karma that I’ve ever encountered. Dragon Lady and I saw it weeks ago, and I’ve been intending and forgetting to recommend it ever since.