thrift, space and voices to be heard! - and Zoe's Peter poem

I spent the early hours one morning talking to our son John (14) about his drama gcse, all about analysis;

about use of the space, abstraction, symbolism, and then showed him .......www.youtube.com/watch?v=8szD3cBpRiI&feature=player_embedded#at=23

and found this on cryingoutloud.org blog;

Thrift is poetic because it is creative; waste is unpoetic because it is waste… It is prosaic to throw a thing away; it is negative; it is a confession of indifference, that is, a confession of failure.’ G. K. Chesterton, What’s Wrong with the World

I really liked this quote when i came upon it on this website, cryingoutloud.org..(apart from being a hoarder, and recycler- thinking, something may always come in useful  to others, if not to our family,and i’ve rarely been able to afford to replace or buy new.)

This quote can be taken on so many levels, but the one that spoke to me was how we waste people and their input. 

We rarely listen to the voices of outsiders / vulnerable people who can have a poetry and a gift to share, to let you see things differently / richer, which is what art can do for us - if we let it - and don’t; over emphasize, over state, over control,

instead; give freedom to interpretation and expression, allow everyone to contribute their voice, and make their own choices in sympathy with the whole /group.

 In sympathy therefore not selfishly...egocentrically, but as a real collaboration with appropriate responsibility, mutuality and joyful support of each other.

painting for Shallal with Strings by Zoe 2010

It requires effort, a discipline and a will, but the results are generous, which is what art should be. ( People usually feel generousity and respond to it.)

Peter read this again the other day, it lives on our dining room shelf , a present from Zoe for his 60th birthday last year.

Peter poem

Landmark is green

How neigh is near

A path full of jewel

Where beyond it only 

cottage,

a long river beside with 

all our best opening

 hearts,

full of “joy” and long 

as we walk’ed

to see the boats standing 

by.

 Zoe Wilton

photo by Zoe, view of Mounts Bay from her home.