theory

Thinking again about the optimism of existentialism. Of the Saphir-Whorf hypothesis, of systems theory. 

And about transitions, the distinctly muddy spaces of the in-between, filled with change and pain and death of once cultural figures and  re-framing of the self in a certain context. 

Like the salon culture of the Enlightenment, moving people to cultivate their individuality. 

Away from hierarchy of the royal few. 

Coinciding with the death of Madame de Pompadour. 

And welcoming the day-to-day--the artistic possibility of apple placed by human hand on simple platter on thick, worn, wood table.

I wonder what she would think now, of this life. 

...

In my communication theory course this spring I have a particularly vibrant professor who would rather the cognizant beings before her be called 'scholars in residence' than 'students.'

 Exiting this primary foray into academia, I'm simultaneously pushed away by such forces and pulled by those on the other side of sidewalk fissures operating as boundary between theory and practice. Though perhaps it shouldn't be so, this boundary. 

The lithograph, Escher's Bond of Union, was dramatically and proudly unveiled as encapsulating this professor's--or rather, scholar's-- theory of communication. 

Very, very apt.