Mamma Mia Pappa Pia

you lived, now what? is i think one of the more interesting questions we can pose with fiction, and i think it's maybe one of the powerful vehicles for conveying the notion that there is no point at which you stop being a person. the most unforgivable irreparable harms are caused by people making choices. and we will make bad ones and keep making them. you're not immune. no one you love is immune.

and crucially, we don't necessarily build a better world by defining criterion for forgiveness, redemption, punishment, penance. forgiveness is relational and as much about the person who has been harmed as it is about the culprit. punishment's effect is rarely improvement. societally, our ideas of redemption and penance are firmly rooted in legalistic notions of judgement — whether based on human morals or divine — where personhood and worthiness are contingent on ticking off boxes that we could argue endlessly about redefining and relitigating.

if you move the story out of that frame, though, it's not a story about "making it up." its a story about living. it's a story about making choices. it's about reflecting on the ones you've made. it's about their impact on your relationships, your sense of self. and i think that inherently has value.

Melanism is the reverse of albinism, the animal has an excess of pigementation.

And then there's Abundism; where there's only a partial excess resulting in much larger patches of melanin but without completely covering the animal

And Leucism which is partial albinism.

sword and shield

- riding a bike

- shirtless

- late 40s

- massive back tattoo of the virgin mary

- full sleeves with icons of the saints

- wearing a dinner plate sized brass amulet

- amulet had a fist-sized green jewel

I just got back from a three day gouache workshop with Danny Folkman! We painted in Point Reyes and Nicasio.