A Lively Experiment

This morning I was not experimenting--I was copying the colors of my Hudson blanket (left) in a God's eye. 
And I've already made several in the colors of Greek protective eyes (right).

Sometimes I've made the eyes with color patterns from nature-- mushrooms or monarch butterflies--but not copied color patterns much otherwise. 
I'd like to start looking more at other textiles (etc.) for colors.

Is copying is a form of experiment? 
Sort of. 
"How would this look in another form?" 
Or, "How might I transfer this into another medium?"
How might I run this through my own life?

Anyway, everything we do is new, because we have not done THIS one before.
One thing I've learned (but not always done) is, to be more careful with the color black. Here, it is too dominant in the Hudson eye. Just a thin line would do, and a much smaller pupil in the center. 
I'll try it again. (Also, find a better gold/yellow...)
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"You know what matters."
 
 I like the idea of life as a lively experiment.
That was Roger Williams's proposal to the English for the establishment of Rhode Island as a place where the state and church were entirely separate: 
it would be "a lively experiment" that the English could watch from afar.  How's that going to work?

Williams wasn't motivated by niceness, (though people said he was a personally nice guy)-- and certainly not by the idea that there are many valid ways to God. 
NO. 
He believed in Soul Freedom, which sounds modern, but he believed Christian Scripture was the one and only true Truth. 
I'm not sure, but I think he meant with St. Paul that within that, we have to Work out your own salvation.

I like that--like Noam Chomsky says when people ask him what they should do politically:
That's for YOU to decide.
Chomsky went further--the very question, "What should I do?" reveals a pathology in society.  "That's not the way it works, you have to find out for yourself. 
...You know what matters."

("Noam Chomsky - What Should I Do?" 1:46 minutes)

Williams is not Chomsky. But he did believe you have to figure it out yourself (within Scripture). 
He ended up leaving all religious denominations, including the Baptist church, which he co-founded. 
He called himself a Seeker.
Again, sounds lovely, sound modern, but he would have believed modern "Seekers"--people like Ram Dass, et al.––were hideously wrong, and eternally damned.

STILL, even if he came to it by a different door, his new idea of separation of church and state is a great idea, which we're still wrestling with.
The experiment continues...

And this current president, mygod, what a crass user he is, of religion and everything else. Roger Williams would be horrified.
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I am feeling better this morning, day four of a cold, but still honking like a goose. 
I left work after two hours yesterday, feeling wiped out. 
Also, Manageress said, "Don't come near me! Go home!"

She is funny. She doesn't want to get my germs, but she also didn't get a flu or Covid vaccine because she doesn't believe in it...
My coworkers are probably not more inconsistent than most people, but our inconsistencies sure are on full display at work.

"I don't believe in Big Government, but I think the government should come sweep these people off the street," a coworker said. He doesn't even vote.

Yes, I said, it’s frustrating, but that 'solution' doesn't turn out so well: you are handing Big Government powers they will use on you.

He sort of agreed.
I actually am sympathetic with his frustration (though not his solution):
the problems of people who carry the "sins" (brokenness) of our society are very … annoying.
You know what I mean?
The desperate, drug-addicted people in our neighborhood act very badly and dangerously--
one had spit on my coworker recently.

We have had two people wave machetes at the cashier. Two different people!

They are acting out the ills of society--not that they aren't also individuals.
 Yes, but at a certain point, they seem to have lost access to their individual selves (souls) and only act out of the drugs and misery in their systems...

But the idea that getting rid of the people-acting-badly will get rid of the root ills is a trick, which my coworker seems to fall for.

Noam Chomsky again:

"The issue is whether we want to live in a free society or whether we want to live under what amounts to a form of self-imposed totalitarianism, 
with the [people] marginalized, directed elsewhere, terrified, screaming patriotic slogans, fearing for their lives, and admiring with awe the leader who saved them from destruction, 
while the educated masses goose-step on command and repeat the slogans they’re supposed to repeat...." 

--via, from Media Control, 2002

(I would like to better overall understand —be able to better articulate—the overarching political/psychological patterns I see at my workplace.
In the middle of it, it feels like a mish-mash scramble! 
But there are repeating, traceable patterns--like in a complicated tapestry.)

And now, off I go, into the coldest morning yet this season, 29ºF.

Have a good day, Beautiful Souls! 
Enjoy your experiments!