My new life as a shaman.

I have just failed at my first attempt to make a Spanish tortilla (egg-potato pie.) I am definitely no Dana, and perhaps I shouldve followed Lauras adviced to cook the potatos in chicken broth first, but nope. It ended up being a a huge omelette, of which half ended up on my stove top during the tricky flipping technique it takes to make a tortilla.

I can't take any pictures for you because I have lost BOTH battery chargers to my Canon Elf, so if anyones thinking of a clever and thoughtful holiday gift to send me......

I have been reading Joseph Campbell, a good book to come into my hands at this point in my life. I oscillate between being caught in though, in ideas, and being set into action, work. And for a while I was stuck in action, action, action. And right now I am in a place of ideas, idealogy, idealism. I catch myself worrying sometimes that I am not doing enough, making things happen (though I am doing quite a but i fyou know me you know I never think it's enough). But I remind myself how much I need these periods of wallwoing in thought to ground myself in my beliefs, my idealogy, my passions, my mind, my spirit. Its in these periods of time that I want to just continue my life as an artist forever, become a scholar, teach, write, speak. Its the times of incessant action that throw me into desires of running for office, taking off for africa to hold children, starting organizations to help immigrants. The peak of my life will be when I have found a way to live my life doing both at once, in a balance. That is the point I want to reach-the point of the most complete me.

Campbell says that artists are the shamans of our age. In my periods of "take action" I often feel like my art is not enough, that it's not actively "doing" anything. But I like this idea that artists revitalize a society with the "mythology" it easily loses, and with the meanings and inspirations found therein. I am going to live in pride as an artist (pride being the un-humble happiness_ because I need to go to that extreme to once again appreciate what it is to live and breath and walk and talk and create as an artist.

Last week I started painting again....I'm no Da Vinci, (though I dream to be), but I finally let myself just do it.