Back into the Frying Pan

Once again, progress on the stone has been patchy, and sporadic. Cold weather, rain, and life in general keep getting in the way. The two paisley shaped excavations are going to run deep into the material.  I was wondering what to do with a large flat triangle at the back of the piece, but I'm turning it into a fold bending around from the front. The goal here will be to work this splinter of rock into waves and folds that will catch and hold the light.

But life showed up again, and shoved the stone out of its place in line. Back down the rabbit hole. Out of the frying pan of stone work, and into the fire of The Lost Canyon Project once again:

 

Seeds, and Spiders.

I often use the term "web of coincidence" to describe the curious workings of synchronicity that run through our lives. But a web necessarily has a spinner, and the Cosmic Spider is a rather sinister metaphor. You could make a case for looms, and threads as well, but you still need a Weaver, and that leads off in a different direction. Seeds to fruit, I think now, is closer to what I intended:

Small gestures bear the seeds of great trends.

And yet:

Seemingly insignificant decisions can spin out events in a vast web of coincidence that catches us up and changes our lives in ways we never dreamed possible.

(I keep working on this... )

Which brings us back to the spider. Go figure.

Question is:

Is there a Greater Hand that guides us, or even moves us through our affairs? 

I believe that there is. If so, how?

 Maybe by nudges so small that they can only be seen in reflection. 

Maybe a decision on a hunch, or "The Voice" in your head. 

 "Stay here."

"What?..."

"Just stay here."

 Later on you find out why.

 

"Should I ask her out?"

Choose Life. 

 

Or go to the Sawdust Festival. That one is feeling more like an other-worldly fusion of the seed and the spider. Now,  I'm spinning this post out all stream of consciousness style, and most of what I just wrote won't make sense to anyone. It has to do with this stuff: 

 

The Lost Canyon Project

 

which led to

 

The Lost Era Transcripts.

 

Thanks to the miracles of medical science, this work has sat dormant for the last few years, while the world went insane. Recent events have brought the project back on line. That sense of a job not yet completed has been hanging over me for a couple of years, now.

 Pete Hampton's The Lost Era was originally going to be done as a slide show with music, sound effects and narration. I re-created the story in book form, adapted from the on-line presentation at the link above.

But recreating the slide show itself?  The software exists(seed). And as I sit here typing, the software is on the hard drive, and the first two stories of  (spider) The Lost Era have been uploaded to the slideshow program. (stuck in the web again)

I had hoped I could turn the music, and narration over to a couple of very dear friends, Glen and Holly. Glen was out of town, yesterday. I went over to meet with Holly, and hear a first take recording of Glen doing the narration. Glen has a good voice. He gave a clear, well measured reading of the text. But Glen never met Pete. Pete's voice-over was passionate, effusive, and melodramatic, coming dangerously close to being a little cornball. Of course, Glen couldn't have any idea of how Pete would have sounded reading this stuff. I remember it well. I took up the text, opened it to Story Five: Night, and said, "Something like this:"

I started reading aloud, and by the second line I just got possessed. I was pulled in, carried away, and completely lost in the moment. Shit, I felt that terror pouring out from the pit of my gut, and into the microphone.

I got smacked in the face with something I should have known all along. No one else can do this. So, now, like it or no I have two projects going on at once. My brain doesn't like to count that high.