HUNKERING DOWN
OIL
24 X 36
$1700

This piece is available through
XANADU GALLERY in Scottsdale, Arizona

We all erect barriers … our protection against the never ending onslaught of news and information. No one is ever free of the endless flood of news and opinion. Quite frankly it boggles the mind.

So we hunker down and put up fences … we use filters and gatekeepers to keep us sane and safe. We use our opinions and preconceived notions to guide our listening and help us to more easily ingest the news. And as time goes by and our opinions become more entrenched, we in effect become engaged in keeping out the riff raft … the hoi polloi … the ignorant and uninformed masses. We like to agree with our news. We like the view that we have, and we like the blue sky to be clear of smog and pollution.

But beware of taking a stand on high ground, and cutting off the intrusion of different opinions. Our brains are like wetlands … they need to be constantly flooded in order to remain viable. Without periodic flooding, a wetland shrinks and dries out like an old sponge, and you are left with a pancake of dried mud in which nothing much can survive.

So too do we need to be challenged and have our brains engaged with a tide of new ideas. It does not serve us well to create ever higher walls. They do not prepare us for disasters, for those forces of nature that can overcome us without warning if we do not listen.