the art of REYNOLD POERNOMO

(click on pictures to watch being made )

White Noise

The Robbit Hole Dessert

Apple Pie and Cinnamon Parfait

Chamomile Ice Cream with Popcorn

 

HEALING

In many shamanic societies, if you came to a shaman or medicine person complaining of being disheartened, dispirited, or depressed, you would have been asked one of these 4 questions:

1- When did you stop DANCING?

2- When did you stop SINGING?

3- When did you stop BEING ENCHANTED BY STORIES?

4- When did you stop FINDING COMFORT IN SILENCE? 

                                   MEDITATE...

           

social contract @ the dark side of us

I was listening to one of the greatest songs ever recorder and thought of my absent father, who couldn't hear it without getting really annoyed; and once had the audacity to say: "this person is screaming."

Pink Floyd - The Great Gig In The Sky

I think I finally understand what getting old means; it's not when you can't enjoy a new art form or understand a new tech feature, it's when you don't give a damn about learning it. 

It's when you look at it for 2 seconds and think: "Nah, I think I'll go do just about anything else." 

How To Make Instagram Story Highlight Covers For Free: Instagram Tutorial For Story Folders

How to Use Instagram Hashtags for Maximum Exposure

How to Use TikTok - Complete Beginners Guide

How to Edit a TikTok

How to Clone yourself on TikTok  ---------------(really? 2 of me? why?)

Wipe It Down TikTok Tutorial 

Every writer in the world share a single secret, and that is the absurd searches we do when researching any subject. After watching these tutorials, I began pondering about all of these titles and a playful, rhetorical thought crossed my mind:  "Can I just die already?   

So I  typed my frustration into the magical search box because; well, why not? 

" Can I just die already?" And out came this...

This OLD MAN Will Not SURVIVE! - Just Die Already    

I watched almost 12 minutes of this video. I watched because I believe you ought to walk on someone else's shoes before commenting about anything. I didn't find a single amusing, endearing or funny moment in the entirety of this video game. Yet, the kid playing the game was having the time of his life. And the people commenting on it are as clueless as one can get.  

We are all connected in such a strange way.  I think that our social contract needs a serious revision. Or we simply accept that the world has become a very, very ugly place with some nasty, nasty people in it. 

( I debated whether or not to post this, since the whole research made me so depressed that I felt it would not be in anyone's best interest to share it. But I soon realized that the video above has a medical diagnostic function: to determine mental illness. If you watch it and find yourself laughing, having a good time, it is time to look for professional help. )

I am going back to my books,  and some coffee and croissants, while listening to some Zen music...and I will stare at this picture for awhile.

(click on the photo to join me...or don't. )

FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION...

 

Straw Hat

     

     From my window I can spot you, daily. You left your things behind; things you no longer need, things you outgrew, things you carried around and finally today, it became too much for you to carry.

    Your footsteps barely carry your weight; it seems from up here, where I watch you visit this café; an oasis for your kind: their kindness, their non-judgmental service of free ice water, as cold as the Los Angelinos came to be; with their supermodel stares, as they meet and greet each other right next to you ; praising each other dogs, while you sit listening, your presence not sensed. 

     Is there such a thing as hope inside of you? Any expectation for kindness, a "Hello" perhaps, a sense of normalcy, of belonging to this city, of making through the night.

     It's dark outside, as dark as the moment that parted you and yours. How long will your steps last when already burden by days and nights, by dragging yourself and your things across town looking for a place to rest.

     If the life of a homeless person is not a testament of how human beings are coded for survival, even in the most abhorrent of circumstances.

     At some point in your day, you seem to remember how they treat you here, behind the counter, the sense of normalcy and acceptance you must derive from this place to end up here nightly. Even if the reality is that we don't care; we don't acknowledge you, and perhaps it is the reason you come here. 

     There are so many homeless in Santa Monica now that our eyes have become accustomed to it; as irises adjusting to darkness. And if being around us, unnoticed, makes you feel less alone; well,  it is the least we can inadvertently do.

On the Issue of Social Problems - DRINKING

     In Greek mythology, Narcissus looked in the mirror and fell in love with his own reflection, not caring to see the substance of what was reflected to him. His infatuation spawned an array of selfish actions and judgment errors that would eventually destroy him. I love mythology; each culture in the world has its own, and yet sometimes they are so universal that they reflect our own fears and desires.

     Among the universal things we share, excessive drinking is the most common- and directly responsible for numerous social problems. If we asked any chief of police in the world, we would be told a terrifying first hand account of the dangers of alcohol. Because of it, police departments have taken upon themselves the responsibility of creating programs designed to educate our children about the dangers of drugs and alcohol. 

     Unfortunately, while we relentlessly preach abdication, all young people can see is our true reflection in the mirror. We have chosen, like Narcissus, to ignore it, but teenagers in their rebellious years refuse to participate in our charade. They take their cues from our actions. We go around telling them to forgo the use of alcohol, without providing them with a reasonable explanation for the existence of so many profitable liquor stores in every single community in the world.  And we shall not mention bars and clubs for the time being.

     In contrast to that, we struggle as a society to keep afloat one single library in each community, which seems to satisfy all of our thirst for knowledge. The majority of people in the world have no need for ballet or poetry and opera houses are considered a pastime of the affluent. Ironically, the same people who chastise the so called elite for their patronage of certain artistic expressions, tend to relinquish their prejudice when alcohol is concerned. They have no qualms about joining the high society in making the liquor industry one of the most profitable enterprises anywhere in the world-while, at the same time, subscribing to the notion that we are far apart from each other, primarily because of our economic differences. 

     Behavior is the blood vessel that delineates each distinctive social class . Most of us choose to patronize a bar instead of going to an opera, to a ballet, to a poetry recital. Drinking doesn’t require any sort of preparation or special garment. There isn’t but a single creative spark emanating from any building that sells alcohol, and it is precisely because the owners understand the mediocre nature of the addictive product they are selling. As members of any society, we are choosing to overlook the image that we are projecting when we get together to lecture our kids about drugs and alcohol. We are simply asking our sons and daughters to overlook our behavior and do as they are told. They refuse it, of course.                     

     Obviously, I am not implying that young adults engaging in excessive drinking are doing so with any sort of an ideological agenda. It is, I’m afraid, a lot simpler than that; our children are a daily testimony to the old adage: “ monkey see, monkey do”. So it’s perhaps not surprising that we are confronted with the televised images of young adults, out there, drinking to the point of not being able to stand up. It is also commonplace to blame parents for all that kids do, though many parents feel that it’s an unfair portrayal of who they are as human beings. 

     However we may wish to define ourselves, what influences our children most are the activities we engage in when we aren’t working. After we are done with our labor of the day, what do we adults do with the rest of our time? Do we go see a movie? Do we head to the theater to see a play? Do we read a book, or learn a new language, perhaps? Do we sit in front of our television or computer screens? In most cases, we reach for a beer or another alcoholic beverage to reward us for ending another hard day’s work. These are the lessons our children learn. How many officers of the law, after spending the day talking to children about alcohol, end their day at a bar, sharing a beer with their fellow officers? 

     

     The media outlets in the world step in and profit from this-you and your children-because advertisement dollars, and not communities' well-being, are their bottom line. The liquor store owners will continue selling to us and our kids free of guilt, for we are responsible for our own behavior. These businesses have a door-wide-open policy, ready to receive us every time we decide to intoxicate ourselves. These establishments are shelves upon shelves of useless products aimed at numbing our souls. I cannot think of another product being sold today, except perhaps for guns, that we humans need less. It’s somewhat ironic that we fight for our constitutional rights to keep our guns and consume as much alcohol as we wish, and yet we care so little about our own education. I’m not advocating closing liquor stores and bars, nor do I aim to vilify the owners of such stores: I am advocating that we adults stop drinking altogether before we advise teenagers of how dangerous alcohol is to their developing brains.

     The Narcissus myth is so important because it’s our story. Our struggle to find meaning when everything inside us wants to hide the truth. After all, to become a better person, one has to start by accepting that there is something wrong, and then one needs the courage to strive for change, no matter how painful and unpleasant it may be. Everywhere we look, we are bombarded with images of how precarious our situation is, and how extremely vulnerable we humans are to nature’s wrath and to our own. We are reminded daily of how short and fragile life really is and how we have to work hard for our survival. 

     It’s primordial that we create an outlet, an activity to lighten our burden.  We choose most times to drink with friends, but alcohol should not be treated as entertainment, for it just numbs the soul and prevents us from finding anything of true meaning in our daily lives. Human beings need to connect to one another. We crave spiritual growth precisely because we know that our bodies will perish. So we have our knitting, chess, book clubs, soccer leagues, bird watching, Facebook and Twitter.  All of which are created in an attempt to bring different people together in a common language we all share: our need, after a hard day, to replenish our souls, preferably in communion with something other than ourselves. There lies the lesson of Narcissus.                                          

     We are not going to convince teenagers to stop drinking until we apologize to them for our sins, for our mistakes. For the numerous commercials we produce to convince them of how cool they would look to one another with a drink in their hands. We have to beg their forgiveness to make it all so enticing and benign. We have to accept our share of blame for sprouting open so many liquor stores in their neighborhoods. 

     It is rare to find a prettier and more intoxicating environment made by man than a liquor store, with its neatly organized shelves, with bottles filled with liquid of every color. You walk in there when the sun is just right, and you can see the bottles splitting the sunlight into an array of colors so pretty and majestic that one can almost forget the destruction that lies within. I wonder, watching the beauty of it, who are they displaying that to, and how does it reflect on all of us?                                                                   

Happy New Year!!! | 2023 |