This is weirding me out more than the loss of my eye; the wearing of, and presenting to my family and the public a fake eye. It’s not my real eye, but I want you all to pretend it is?
I have one eye. That is the truth. You all know it is the truth. Wearing a patch does not deny that truth. It merely shields you from having to look at a disagreeable emptiness to the right of my nose. My right, your left. But really what I’m talking about is your right. Stoopid pun. Your right to not be expected to believe a lie. I have a severe dislike for dishonesty.
Those alterier influences and motives I wrote about earlier lead to a certain dishonesty too. They even lead one to be dishonest with oneself, without even knowing it. To view the world or a work of art without letting go of preconceptions or motives is to view it through filtering lenses, be they blinders or rose-colored glasses. True, some degree of discrimination is a good, even necessary thing. “Leaves of three, let it be,” I know what poison ivy looks like and I avoid anything that even looks like it might look like it.
Again, as Becket said, “The danger lies in the neatness of identification.”
But really, what Becket means is that we often miss the point by trying too hard to identify. “Is his right eye the same as his left one? Is that real? Which one should I look at when I talk to him?” “Damn, I forgot to listen to what he was saying.”
“This painting is too strange. I don’t get it, and the longer I stand here the more obvious it is that I don’t get it.”
Damn… You forgot to listen to what the painting was saying. Shut up and listen – - to the painting. There’s nothing untrue there. Listen…what do you see? It’s all just paint — real paint. Even the fake stuff, like Wesselman’s Still Life corn cob, is real fake stuff. The museum put it in a plexi case because people want to touch it, like they can’t believe it’s really fake. It’s a four-foot long corn cob made of shiny plastic. But people want to make sure. Meanwhile they forget to look at it. And smile at it.
“Damn, that’s a sexy eye-patch that guy’s wearing. I’d better listen to him. And smile at him.”
Just keepin’ it real…
peace, love,
d
