[MD] Defining Art (was Churning Point)

[Heather Perella]

Arlo and All,
     You've inspired me to pull out Mozart and listen,
and if I had a CD that played the didgeridooing I
would play that.  I have not heard either one for a
long time so both are on the outer circle for me at
this point.  I don't listen to music very often. 
Mostly I sit here in the quiet, except I hear the
refrigerator, and even in the jeep I may turn on some
country music or recently I've been listening to the
soundtrack to the "The Last of the Mohicans".  Now
that was a great book and an awesome movie.  The
sadness in the end of movie is captured beautifully
with none other than the music that sinks its' teeth
into the depths of a person's heart, chews on it,
spits some of its out, and then the regeneration by
our spirit puts the pieces back together hoping... and
in my case, hoping the woods surround me once again.

     By the way Lila is an awesome book.  I started to
read it the other day and I am flying through the
pages.  The government of the United States is based
on the Iroquois Confederation.  I don't know if Pirsig
mentions that, but I have seen at least two
historically documented books, that I can remember,
one showing meetings between Benjamin Franklin and
Amerindians and in which Franklin said he studied
their ways and brought up their ways of governing at
the Albany Congress to be incorporated in a eventual
United States government.
     Pirsig had Thoreau's ideas as well.  The bringing
of nature, freedom, and the straight talk of the woods
into Concord.  This straight talk showed up in "Baker
Farm" (found in Walden) in which Thoreau talks to a
rugged Irishman, John Field, as meeting just another
philosopher.  Thoreau does talk about Greek society
and other societies (even encourages a East meets West
collaborate philosophy), which would have to be
learned and understood in a difficult manner at times,
yet, the basic woodsy style would connect with any
hands upon the trees and fishin' pole in the lake kind
of person where the thoughts (and even raw materials)
first appear, which is in the open sky, fresh upon
each new sunrise and sunset, in other words, the earth
and sky.  This side-skirts any university or walled
society taught jargon, code, or unintentional or
intentional secret society that excludes others from
knowing something that they somehow deem to be
reserved for those that are intelligent enough to
understand.  Thoreau bypasses this with "Sounds" or
the "Bean Field" or just plain "Walking".  This was
all to break down the wall that Concordians built in
defense against the woods and savages.  No society
builds a defensive wall unless fear is with them. 
Fear of what?  Fear of themselves, of the creativity
that may occur being soo far away from what they
thought where the delights and conformity of Paris,
etc...   

SA

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