The New Now brings us to Texas. Not whitewashed Texas, not Austin, the Texas city that everyone where I come from calls cool and liberal. But Dallas. We are in the middle, up and dropped. A place most Easterners don't consider because we don't have the slightest - we can't even picture it - we have no expectations.
What is more appropriate, in a new world, seeing from new lenses, than to be lifted and dropped in a place we can't even pass judgment on? Passive and real, acceptance.
Creativity in transition is a stiff challenge. It's hard to be introspective when there's so little stillness of mind. ADD, too much to manage. But so many of us are in motion now, there is no rest. Rest was a state enjoyed earlier this decade. But transition equals observation. We notice and note, we fold down the corners, people, places and things.
What better application for my very favorite exercise, Three Beautiful Things?
1 - You watch late summer rain in Texas change by altitude, starting with long ribbons, then it's thick droplets, and by the time it reaches ground it's just mist, which for the cross country girls we pass on our way to school every morning, is like running through a sprinkler.
2 - I meet the stunning octogenarian from the 16th floor ordering a Grande Misto at Starbucks every day, then watch her meet her caretaker in the lobby with a hand shake and a kiss before they ascend to their day.
3 - Our furnished apartment came with industrial lighting, hotel linens and an uncomfortable pull-out couch. But the painting in the living room is a pastel of the Prinsengracht. Amsterdam meets Dallas, in a high rise.
