Reflections on Duality
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Hello friends —
Oh, what a time to be alive. I hope we are keeping warm and safe, feeling supported and interconnected. May the rains fall to dampen the flames, may this ceasefire lead to a much-needed exhale, tender reunions with loved ones, and a longer journey toward liberated peoples and lands.
The theme of “duality” continues to present itself to me. Throughout this newsletter you’ll see some images I’ve been working with the last few weeks around this theme. Needing to hold multiple truths and contradicting realities has become a necessary skill that sometimes I embrace easefully and other times with much resistance. Sometimes it alleviates with such clarity, other times I’m left wildly confused. The nothing makes sense / everything makes sense continues to loop around me, within me.
Within two days, I created the two pieces above.
Tired from weeping on my couch for hours, I turned to a giant canvas and wrote the word CRY in huge letters hoping for more relief. My stomach in knots, my limbs weighed down, I felt overwhelmed by guttural sadness, grief, and loneliness I thought would never go away. (In later days it became clear to me this was an ancestral pain, not just my own — what a relief! — but that’s a whole other newsletter for another time.)
The next day, I attended a workshop where we created our own inner Schlemiel, a Yiddish term describing the Jewish archetype of a fool. Instead of creating in my studio with art materials, I created in my kitchen using a lemon, crushed walnuts, dates, and steak skewers. Creating this little creature filled me with so much joy and levity, I laughed out loud as I assembled the pieces together. How silly! How meaningless! How fun! How hilarious! How alive I feel!
The range of emotions felt within these two days were drastically different. During the act of creation for each one, it felt as if the “other one” could have never existed, will never exist again. And neither one is “more true” than the other. Call it my Gemini moon, call it the waxing and waning of life, the dualities continue to show up in my life in various ways.
After an intense holiday season of creating for product and sales, I spent days creating nothing at all. When my hands wanted to make again, all they wanted to make were tiny gifts to plant around the neighborhood. Next month I’m beginning a 2-year Jewish Nonviolence Ordination Program (very serious) and also a 6-week Stand Up Comedy Class (very unserious). I welcome these dualities and more to come and continue to try embracing all parts of myself and our world unfolding.
Tomorrow, our communities honor the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr., a peacekeeper who forever transformed the DNA of this place, while at the same time brace for a new “leader” who none of us believe in or turn toward. I really have no words of advice or comfort to offer, only that these are what the times demand of us. May we continue to build the skills and capacity to be present with it all. And present for each other. One of my favorite collage artists Zsudayka Nzinga is hosting an all-ages art making event tomorrow to honor MLK Jr.. And here is a brilliant meditation offered last year by brontë velez where they share about the “tension and grace of Black peace on Turtle Island.”
With you all in the expansions and contractions of this place and time,
Maya