Dear Gist to Joy adventurers,
The April 2022 Gist to Joy adventure celebrates HUMOR and POETRY!
Welcome to email one of thirteen, day one, month one of this 13 month journey of creative exploration and nurturing of Gist to Joy:
from GIST to Conception to Expression = JOY
The joy is experienced in the successful sequence of alchemy:
1) taking the clay of gist
2) conceiving the form in which to “mold and shape the clay” to direct into an art form
3) expressing that gist in such a way that is transformed into a beautiful work of art.
4) feeling the joy
When practicing the 5 step focus - I invite you to make step 4 a focus on what is awkward and humorous - within you, and as you go ideally through life in a perpetual state of step 5 - with the specific focus or heightened awareness of humor… Be on the look out. Also - notice, what is the gist of what is being expressed around you?
What is being expressed behind the sound of bird song?
What is the gist of the different flowers, buds, and body language?
What is the gist of a person, garden, room, area? What is the emotional tone of ……. a dream, a meal, an interpretation of a work of music.
Assignment for those who wish to spend some time listening to music.
Listen deeply to the various gists of different performances of the same work of music. Compare. Listen for humor.
Which composers do you know who express humor?
I remember meeting and hearing Lucas Foss give a lecture about how he focuses on the humor of Beethoven’s music in his interpretations.
Instrumentalists: revisit Beethoven and up the humor in your interpretation if you wish. Discover what you will. Have fun!
Now - April is devoted to HUMOR and also POETRY. How is the gist of humor expressed literally in poetry, and metaphorically in aspects of life?
Let’s think about this challenge…..why is it so difficult to create humor in art? To me, humor is about twist, from the awkward and too serious to laughing at life, putting it in perspective and thus relieving the tension. Nice to not stay bent out of shape - that twist - seems to adjust us back to “we’re good” “it’s fun to be human …. when we don’t take ourselves too seriously.
How can you create humor in a truly artful, not abusive or crude way? … in your primary art form, or in other art forms?
How have others created humor - explore, seek and find - as you wish this month
in painting
poetry
theater
music
dance
???
If you check out the painting page on my website, one category is HUMOR. There is 1 - ONE - painting with a humorous bent, called “THE LAND OF LOST LUGGAGE”.
Embracing the challenge, I decided to take the gist of FRUSTRATION, aggravation, vulnerability and being out of control, and giving it a TWIST of whimsy, fantasy, absurdity. It just helps me SWEEP these unpleasant feelings of life’s hiccups, and helps me not take myself too seriously. But I confess, I do this seriously!
How many dinner parties throughout the world have had a conversation starter about lost luggage? Right? It’s annoying at the very least, and any humor to icky feelings is a RELIEF somehow. Chances are, the conversation might turn humorous because one has to cope in odd ways especially away from home, and experience awkwardness because of lost luggage. Maybe someone ends up wearing that travel suit to the beach, or a hot pink sun dress to a dinner party …?
Comedians really take the helm of what tickles our fears, awkwardness, and embarrassing feelings etc. .
Have you seen the MOVIE “My big fat Greek Wedding” I remember seeing it in the movie theater when it first came out. The theater was packed and it was a joy to be in a theater filled with people laughing…. really laughing. We were relating to how intensely awkward it is to be in love, interface with a group of people of another culture, and it was so alchemically healing to see these feelings expressed artfully with compassion and such humor.
Creative writing prompt: short story - a dinner party with the throw out question of “Ever experience lost luggage when traveling?” Could be interesting!
MOVIE: Bread and Tulips - is funny. Taking the feelings of being lost and out of place, then falling in love. Tension is created when the main character’s wedding ring slips off and falls in the toilet and while she struggles to retrieve it, her tour bus takes off without her. She is stranded and ends up falling in love with a nice guy. It keeps getting better. There is a line in it “Today has been abundant in frustration.” If you haven’t seen it already, it’s a great flick to laugh at life and embrace humanness.
MIME: I remember seeing mime master Marcel Marceau perform live at The Red Vic, London 1984. He had us laughing as he clearly depicted a man getting ready for a dinner date. Precious - all through body language and linear movement phrasing. I remembering seeing him overdose on applying cologne and compulsively rearranging in micro inches, the position of dinner plates, flat ware and the two glasses for a very long time, revealing how nervous he was. We were in stitches! Then, he was rehearsing how to act the opposite of how nervous he felt, as he imagined how he’d like the unfolding of events to take place as he waited for the doorbell to ring. Unforgettable and deeply endearing.
MUSIC: just like syncopation requires the establishment of a clear downbeat, in order to create the contrast of the syncopated rhythm, humor - I think - requires the “down beat” of awkwardness or tension of some kind, etc. to be established before given a twist.
When I think of humor in both Marcel Marceau’s performance and also various musical works which successfully depict humor, pauses, silence, fear or apprehension in slow motion contrasted with quick fearful or burst of courage and pause for reflection seem to be common. Timing is everything. The unexpected hesitation…the jerky movement (like syncopation) the odd chromatic followed by silence or pregnant pause, followed by rapid movement.
The surprise created by an unmet expectation, which causes tension about an area of human innocent human awkwardness that helps us relate to one another in our humanness.
It increases compassion and love and a shared joy of being alive when we can not take ourselves so seriously - n’est pas?
Musicians: prompt - challenge opportunity:
improvise one or more of the following three ideas - gist - and translate into music, as you wish, or of course other ideas of your own:
1) drunken bishop*
2) cupid’s bad hair day (I’m thinking about composing an opera some day titled this - for me, it fires the imagination. Focusing on the tensions we feel when we fall in love. )
3) learning to ski
* I remember when my older cousin Richie, got married. The Minister scheduled to run the ceremony got suddenly ill, and so an emergency substitute Minister was called in - who was PLASTERED. He was screwing up right and left and my stoic Nordic Lutheran family, were all turning all shades of red while we were trying so hard to not howl with laughter. RIchie’s mother was sitting up front and we could all see her shoulders gyrating up and down as she silently laughed, making it all the more difficult for us to not explode with roaring laughter.
In a final epic moment, the Minister forgot to say “You may kiss the bride.” So, Richie was sure to remind him of THAT line, and with that we fell forward in our pews with open mouths and silently shaking bodies.
This first month focuses on the twist of HUMOR and as April is poetry month - on POETRY - within our lives and artistry which we create and consume.
I’ll be sure to read a lot of poetry by HAFIZ and RUMI when ready for a dose of humor in poetry, increasing a love of humanity and what flows through us. You’re welcome to join me.
One creative writer has significantly influenced my composing of music and that is Tove Jansson, a Finnish lesbian woman who wrote a FASCINATING book - you may know it - “The Summer Book”
The Summer Book is a collection of short stories which all work well independently, yet can be read sequentially to create a novel. Such mastery! I asked myself - WHY and HOW does her writing work artistically? What about is makes it so powerful? One thing I noticed is that there is this underlying tension sustained until the last line or two.
Furthermore - and I crazy love this - she creates the landscape like a character! She writes in a way that the GIST of the earth and land is alive and has a influential presence. Spell binding and beautiful. The book contains humor through human clumsiness and surprising sincerity.
I aspire to finish a humorous book “A Year in Provence”. I enjoy it's heartwarming irreverence through frustration on a foundation of love of food, travel while tolerating people who are most amusing. YUM!
DREAM WORK:
Have you ever had a humorous dream or know of anyone who has? I confess I do not.
I offer a suggestion:
Focusing on poetry then and dreaming - translate the gist of the dream - through silent dance movement.
Characters can be depicted in movement, the gist of an atmosphere translated in movement, a pose containing the gist of a moment or something in the dream. Personally, I love to avoid putting dreams into language at first, moving a dream in silence helps me wake up while staying with the dream without contaminating it with language. Keeps my mind in the land of that sea.
Composers: try a fun work using humor.
People - have Siri on your iPhone? At times I say “Hey Siri, tell me a joke.” If you haven’t tried it already, they can be pretty good. Nice to laugh.
CUISINE:
To honor humor and joy in cuisine this month, I’m making it a point to add lemon as much as I can and be sure to add a little sour and surprise kicks and color to my dishes and drinks. For example - ginger and pineapple. I’ll be deliberately adding tendencies to add lift with sour and hot/warm color in more dishes.
For April, I suggest focusing just on practicing the 5 step focus and getting that “in your bones”. then next month or the month after when you feel ready, starting The Imaginative Focus.
I suggest practicing the 5 step focus 3 times a day for just 5 minutes. If you have time - enjoy a longer stay with each step.
Feel free to ask me to guide you through it. 828 242 3765.
Spring to your step:
Perhaps this month for one day or more you might consider adding a dash of some unusual joy to your grooming. A bow tie, pin, hat, scarf, dash of bright or what not to honor April and life. Mother nature floods us with vibrant tulips. Why not join the parade for a bit?
All best wishes.
Your fellow “pilgrim”,
Kathryn
828 242 3765
PS( For your convenience:
Five step focus
step one; Focus your mind on your breathing and posture as you are sitting in your preferred meditative position
step two: “ “ add to your awareness everything you can hear
step three: “ “ olfactory - breathe deeper and slower, relax body more head to toe
step four: “ “ add greater awareness and heightened sensitivity - APRIL 2022 - humor - if/when you wish
step five: “ “ add eyesight, without eyesight eclipsing the other senses
The ideal is to stay in a strong sense of step 5 consistently .)