23 November 2005: Part Clown, Part Monkey

Happy Monkey Day!

Two more papers left to write this semester; I hand the last one in on the morning of December 7th. After that, maybe I'll have time to do some updates here.

I start my studies at CIIS on January 6th. For those who've been wondering why I was so interested in this particular school, here are my classes for the first semester:

• Modern Perspectives (Yeah, that's the whole name of the class... it's not Modern Perspectives "on" anything.)

• Integral Learning

• Self and Society

• Symmetry in Design and Nature (This is my Math requirement!)

• Tibetan Compassion Practices (Seriously.)

 

Paratheatrical Update: By its midpoint, the paratheatrical Clown Lab, originally focused on creating clownlike characters based on our deepest hypocrisies, had evolved away from the clown theme to the point where it has now been rechristened Experiments in Hypocrisy.

Now, two-thirds of the way through the lab, further evolution has led us to re-evaluate our original plan to have the lab culminate in a series of public performances of ritual comedy. I've got to head out to teach my Wednesday night aikido class soon, so my own comments on the lab's progress, and of how its intent has transformed in response to its emergent lessons, will have to wait for another time. But here is Sherpa's statement on the matter, which matches my own observations and feelings:

What began and persisted as a ritual intent of exposing and performing our personal hypocrisies as "clown characterizations" has gone as far as it could go and will not culminate in a clown performance after all. Those paratheatre processes we have engaged did indeed expose our personal hypocrisies as well as those holding our society's reality structures together. In repsonse there has emerged a new undercurrent of healing these open wounds, rather than trounce about and parade them for all to see. And so we are tending to a certain transformation now as this lab progresses into its final tri-mester through Winter Solstice when there may, or may not, be a public demonstration of the ritual work we have been doing.

 

The upshot is that we won’t be doing those two weekends of comic ritual performances as clown characters. We might, however, do one single public demonstration – not a developed performance piece, just a paratheatrical ritual session in front of whoever wants to come and watch such a thing – on Monday, December 19th, the final night of the lab.

We might. We don’t know yet. We will decide maybe a week beforehand. I will, of course, announce our decision here in this journal, so stay tuned.

Monkey monkey monkey
Sing the Monkey Song
Monkey monkey monkey
Monkey all day long!