I
A young student has come to my door: will I teach him to play guitar? He is in a state: he has been touched by something real and available, but his station does not correspond to this. He is seeking a personal apprenticeship.
No. I have been giving guitar lessons for 50 years. I no longer do that. Now, I carry my guitar, but I do something else.
II
Twice-through the encircling and moving between-and-into spaces, and out again. One of the house team, the most inexperienced, spent the encore rehearsal-period staring at me. I find this astonishing, even after all the years I have been stared at.
There is a quality of gaze that takes, that steals, and this one example of it. This quality of participation (ie negative participation) characterizes a station, a place where a particular quality-of-being-present (ie being absent) is our centre of gravity, our level of being, the degree of our consciousness. It determines how we think, feel and behave; our rights (absolute), our obligations and responsibilities (negligible and to be negotiated in any case). It also attracts to us our quality of life; and, if not in the short term, then inevitably in the long term, disappointment: Why has life let me down? Not given me what I deserve? Why do people not respect me?
But, how to discuss the weather with someone whose head is placed where sunshine never falls?
Monday 4th. October, 2010
Casa De Encuentros San Juan Bosco, Av. Fuerza Aerea 1800
Funes, Pvcia. de Santa Fe
Argentina.
