Here we are again at the onset of the sunny and warm season, when the trees are leaving (or are they leaFing?), the tulips are popping, and the growing resumes. And along with it come those thoughts of how we grow, and if we're not zombies we think about which direction we wish to grow, we summon our spirits and put our minds to work and get down to business. With each trip around the sun we get bigger, older, and wiser and all the while do everything we can not to grow out of our childhood happiness and wonder. And there you have the paradox of humanity. It's a fine line we walk toward happiness, which is not really smiling and laughing all the time, but rather contentment and peace of mind. Pretty hard to achieve in the 21st century with the onslaught of information...and we are willfully doing it to ourselves. And I'm participating. And I'm contributing.

In trying to catch up, which means cleaning out the emailbox while I ignore the pile of physical mail in the other room, I stumbled across two bbc articles I bookmarked for myself, so I could someday post them here. How 'bout this? Reminds me of a reply I got from a friend when I passed him a link to news about building a telescope in CA exclusively for searching for extra-terrestrial life. He said, "Stupid fuckers. They should be scanning the treetops." What a beautiful thought. And then there's this. Can you put all of this into your imagination and make it all work? And then fold in the scriptures, war, good, bad, rich, poor? And fragile ecosystems being destroyed at the hands of man. Why are we doing this to ourselves? It's all so much to put together.

And then after you go there in your mind and can't take it any longer, you can't help but go introspective and ask yourself the classic, "Who am I?" and then, "What am I doing and why am I doing it?"

If you're me, this is when you go, "This is such a freaking waste of my time I cannot believe I allow myself to do it!" I could be outside, being the change I wish to see in the world, setting the example, making the difference. Sure there should be more prairie plants in our countrysides and urban areas...in my own town for crying out loud! But who's going to plant them all? Talk sure is cheap. Blogging is even cheaper. There's really not a very good reason for doing what I'm doing right now. There's just not. I'm not getting anything fucking done! And neither are you...you're just reading another fucking blog! Sorry to drag you into this, but I get worked up sometimes. Hopefully you're being entertained at the very least. But come on. How much entertainment do you need? Shouldn't you be doing something? Shouldn't I be doing something?

As helpful as the blogosphere might be, as long as it's educational and/or inspirational as opposed to just another source of entertainment so we have just one more reason to sit around doing nothing but consuming (that is the problem, by the way), I think it's safe to say it's pretty saturated. But some of it is so good...tomorrow I could be singing the praises of the internet with a big ol' Alleluia.

Here's why. Everyone who knows anything about Western history knows that things were pretty creepy and pretty dark between The New Testament and the Renaissance. The enlightenment of the Renaissance came with a huge technological revolution in the way information was spread: the printing press. Keep in mind that it was a very manual and mechanical printing press. Over the past century, we have seen this incredible shift to electronic technology, from the lightbulb to the radio to the tv to the personal computer and now the pda, the iPhone, or whatever. It's fucking incredible, to say the least. At least to a simple man like me it is. Mind-blowing, really. Makes me feel dumb. Do you understand how all this shit works? I don't. But I use it all the time.

To get to the point (finally), I think we've got every reason to believe that, while we have certainly not seen any real enlightenment in about 500 years (or we wouldn't be destroying our planet and killing our brothers and sisters), it's coming, and it's all going to be thanks to the new technology. I might be struggling with finding a balance in how I use it, and how much I use it, but that doesn't mean I don't like it or don't want it. I'm a fan. It keeps me optimistic.

How can I tie all that back to "alien life?" Let's see...uh...I am you and he is me and we are all together?...Maybe?

And now a brief update on studio-related activity

I have been enlisted by a collaging friend I met through the new technology to participate in an old technology collaborative mail-art project with two other collage artists in the United States. I'm excited about it and while I supposed I should provide links, upload images of the work in progess, and all that other obsessive electronic mumbo jumbo I'm just not going there. Forget it.

I also have a show of miniature collages at a grocery store up in Eau Claire in July. I don't have any minis ready to go, so will have to put some time into making those in the weeks ahead. Looking forward to getting physical.

The bathroom project is done and there's a living room to prep and paint before the old tech press can be set up again in the playroom, 2009's ultimate goal. Other than that, there is the usual tending to the earth that I love so much during these summer months.

I wish you peace of mind and heart in all your days, as long as you are actively pursuing it. If you're waiting for it to come to you, well...I guess you can just go on living in hell. Your happiness is entirely up to you, just as mine is to me.

PINK MOON 2009 Love is in the air.

WORM MOON 2009 Pobody's nerfect.

SNOW MOON 2009 Let's kill two birds with one stone

WOLF MOON 2009 Welcome to the future, Mr Koppa.

COLD MOON 2008 My friend, Steinke, R.I.P.

BEAVER MOON 2008 How do you say love?

HUNTER MOON 2008 What's up and why do you care?

HARVEST MOON 2008 Hopping across Wisconsin

STURGEON MOON 2008 Summer #40: Check!

STRAWBERRY MOON 2008 The Floody Mona Lisa

FLOWER MOON 2008 Organically Speaking

PINK MOON 2008 Oh, the iron(y).

WORM MOON 2008 Reflecting on The Sphere(s)

SNOW MOON 2008 Have I failed?

Check out the ALL the guest blogging of 2008!

Mister Sloppa's 2007 Log