A Cure for Fear of Criticism

Over the past few weeks, I have been promoting our Internet shop. This has included many posts to advertise our presence in different communities. Sometimes it brings new orders and inquiries, and other times a storm of caustic replies to both the advertising address and the shop address.

Of course I'm delighted with the first category of responses. The others... are usually unkind,

Postcard Kabbala

Two of my friends are great fans of Kabbala classes and websites. They eagerly tell me about the great heavenly knowledge they are receiving.

It doesn't move me to join them, for several down-to-earth reasons.

1: I don't trust the sincerity of a community movement in which huge amounts of money are being made. To put it bluntly, "Truth for Profit" just doesn't sound like God's way.

2: I am not impressed with the "revelations" posted by Kabbalistic rabbis, given as answers to people with real-life issues. The vague "pearls" seem to be truisms chosen at random from Kabbalistic writings, whereas a specific question deserves a specific answer.

3: I doubt that the comprehension of Lifechanging Spiritual Truth can be mass-marketed. Huge halls containing hundreds of expectant people may be a venue for getting across a few Common Beginning Truths. On the other hand, this has also been the setting throughout history for Group Indoctrination and Brainwashing.
The discovery of Real Truth is a journey best taken alone. Or with one or two friends whose love of the Truth is a proven fact.
Is Kabbala part of that Truth? Well, I'm pretty sure I won't find the answer in those huge halls or vague "pearls". It would be like trying to study the work of an artist from the cheap postcard reproductions you find in souvenir shops. If you've stood before an original Van Gogh, you can be reminded of that experience by looking at the copy. If you haven't, all you can hope to get is a sense of structure and style.
Great Spiritual Teaching that may be contained in Kabbala cannot be discovered by studying its cheap postcards. The most profound Truth revealed by this method is the predictability of the Great Human Ego, forever seeking short-cuts to Heaven.
http://www.artleah.com/

"Why Art? or, Solving the Big Head Problem"

Art performs many tasks in society. Perhaps the most important is to enable people to see things that were formerly invisible, or which were brought into existence by the artist. Artists push at the envelope of social understanding, and those in the vanguard are often rewarded with scorn and calumny. The second wave of artists, treading where the visionaries have paved the way, are more able to be understood, and do a little better. At last, the idea becomes common currency and society as a whole lurches forward.

DAVID LANCE GOINES

http://www.artleah.com/

Change and its constituents (there are two, and both are a problem)

People who fear they will be hurt by a change speak up immediately, loudly and without regard for the odds or reality.

People who will benefit from a change don't believe it (until it happens), so they sit quietly.
And that's why change in an organization is difficult.
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2010/10/change-and-its-constituents-there-are-two-and-both-are-a-problem.html



The Quality of an Impulse

In the jewelry class, the other participants were turning out "works of art" by the dozen. I was not so successful... but I didn't envy them.

There was a lot of fast soldering and cutting going on, but the results were inaccurate and looked amateurish - objects that could not be properly called "a jeweller's work." What's the point in following your creative impulses, if the products are low quality and unprofessional?

Once upon a time, I did pictures on fabric with the batik dyeing method, an impulsive art form that occasionally struck me as a passing mood. My mood of the day would dictate the color scheme, and my mood of the moment would guide my placement and shaping of the color spots.
While learning jewelry technique, I saw the oxidation effects on silver, and the combination of bright and darkened metal invited me to play on it in the same way. At this time, we were also learning how to frame a gem. So I added Rose Quartz to my "batik" silver piece.
Thus, I suddenly and unintentionally produced my first complete design: a silver pendant and ring with pink quartz. The name was given to it by my daughter Julia: "Sand and Water."
I myself could not decide if I liked the visual results or not. But two things were clear and satisfying to me:

(1) It was not like mainstream jewelery, and

(2) It was quality work.
The beginning of the story