For those of you who read this blog regularly, you know I try to put out one post a day on a particular issue. For those of you who are new here, this has been the formula. This may change, but not in the very near future.
On the other hand, there is a different venue that I use quite a bit that is far more eclectic. My Facebook page is something I post to repeatedly throughout the day and night. If I had to state my objectives for my Facebook page it would be what the Roman poet used to define as the art of poetry: "dulce et utile". The loose translation of this: to please and instruct.
We have long past the easy distinctions between high and low culture.. Professors now write learned treatises on things we would never had thought about in intellectual terms just a decade or two ago: blue jean, for example. The just released book Blue Jeans: The Art of the Ordinary is on my kindle list.
For example, the photo above is, at least to me funny, simply because the look on the young man's face is priceless. The caption, however, captures the essence of why Thomas Friedmans's often cited cultural meme-- the world is flat--is flat out misleading. Although there are many ways in which the world has shrunk (and this blog is certainly one of them, given the international audience who reads it), it is also true that there remain dramatic and in some cases seemingly insurmountable cultural differences across the world (and in some cases, across city blocks).
These two poles represent the ends of the spectrum in terms of sameness and difference. And like most things, the world we live in contains elements of both. At times they conflict, other times they intersect, and at other times they seem to exist in a world of quantum physics: they both exist and do not in the same space and time. While my Facebook page does not attempt philosophical depth, it does skim across the surface of many issues and snapshots (both literal and figurative) of our world.
We live in a world in which Homer the poet and Homer Simpson are a click away. And that what Home Simpson ways in this photo is precisely applicable to the oral tradition of Homer the Greek's art. It is a great time to be alive when there is so much that is profound, and funny, and smart.
One of the reasons museums are regarded by some at the newest form of cathedrals or mosques or synagogues or Buddhist temples (you get the point), is that they are solemn places prayer to the gods of art. But religions are all too often way too serious. It is why blood is shed daily in some places.
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| Duchamp's "Fountain" |
But art, at least, should be, at times funny. Anyone who does not laugh at Duchamp's "fountain" misses the point. But housing such 'treasures' in sacred spaces has killed much of the inherent laughter. Facebook allows great art, completely inappropriate images and words, and politics to exist side by side, sometimes commenting on one another in interesting ways.
In this sense,Facebook, or at least my page, is my attempt to show rather than tell what my catchphrase for my various sites means: "only connect". Some of the juxtapositions are meaningful. Some are by chance. But all of these speak to each other if you let them. The world we live in is an endless conversation.
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| Self-Portrait |
With that in mind, I urge any of you who are not yet a Facebook friend hit the request button. I have yet to say no. The reason I ask you to do this is simple. I want you to join and then poke around and then look at the people you are now connected to.
They are from all over the world. Some are young entrepreneurs, some work for the most famous companies in the world, some are artists, and some are students some are or parents of students I am blessed to have travelled widely and now to work at a job that entourages conversation. I am lucky that so many wish to be a part of my odd mix of interests. And I am especially lucky in that I have learned almost all I know from these people (and many more who are not yet Facebook friends but I hope will be soon).
I ask you to look around and if you find someone who does something that interests you, or is from your town or country or school and you want to ask them a question that you will send me a message and I will reach out to see if they have the time and inclination to begin a conversation. I have already asked a great many people who are Facebook friends if they would be willing to share their knowledge and experience and almost all of them have said yes.
So by all means ask. Again and again I have seen the beginning of a new venture or learning experience begin with a Facebook friend.. And don't forget to comment and contribute. your words and work and data. You will then be a part of what makes this group among the most dynamic collection of minds and voices I have ever seen in one place. I hope you will join in and have fun.
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