Jeffrey Francis Longtin on tue 26 nov 02
Last Friday, November 22nd, a twelve year old girl was working on the family
computer, doing her homework, at 3:00 pm in the afternoon. A bullet
penetrated the wall of her families home and she died on the way to the
hospital.
That occured five blocks away from where I write this email. Last Friday.
As I drove in to work this Monday I passed a home with a bunch of flowers
laid out in front of it and I realized THAT is where IT happened.
REALITY CHECK.
BIG TIME reality check!
As I drove home on Friday of last week I drove down the street where this
happened and passed a bunch of police cars. I didn't hear the days news so I
found myself thinking, "Oh what happened in the "hood" this time?"
This time a little twelve year old girl lost her life due to the selfish
stupidity of others.
Do me a favor gang, stop making stupid bullshit pots. Start making pots that
people care about. Start making pots that matter.
Yeah its contrived, yeah its a tad over the top...but screw you, its time we
potters started making a difference.
Jeff Longtin
in sad, sad, minneapolis
ps. don't tell me making pots makes you feel good. If you want to feel good
go see a therapist. Make pots because you need to make pots, not because you
need to make a statement.
When you make a pot that matters you have made a statement.
don hunt on wed 27 nov 02
What pot can possibly make a difference in light of that? Which pot will the
family stop their morning to admire? What we make is trivial in light of eternity.
Don Hunt
Jeffrey Francis Longtin wrote:
> Last Friday, November 22nd, a twelve year old girl was working on the family
> computer, doing her homework, at 3:00 pm in the afternoon. A bullet
> penetrated the wall of her families home and she died on the way to the
> hospital.
> That occured five blocks away from where I write this email. Last Friday.
> As I drove in to work this Monday I passed a home with a bunch of flowers
> laid out in front of it and I realized THAT is where IT happened.
> REALITY CHECK.
> BIG TIME reality check!
> As I drove home on Friday of last week I drove down the street where this
> happened and passed a bunch of police cars. I didn't hear the days news so I
> found myself thinking, "Oh what happened in the "hood" this time?"
> This time a little twelve year old girl lost her life due to the selfish
> stupidity of others.
>
> Do me a favor gang, stop making stupid bullshit pots. Start making pots that
> people care about. Start making pots that matter.
>
> Yeah its contrived, yeah its a tad over the top...but screw you, its time we
> potters started making a difference.
>
> Jeff Longtin
> in sad, sad, minneapolis
>
> ps. don't tell me making pots makes you feel good. If you want to feel good
> go see a therapist. Make pots because you need to make pots, not because you
> need to make a statement.
>
> When you make a pot that matters you have made a statement.
>
> ______________________________________________________________________________
> Send postings to clayart@lsv.ceramics.org
>
> You may look at the archives for the list or change your subscription
> settings from http://www.ceramics.org/clayart/
>
> Moderator of the list is Mel Jacobson who may be reached at melpots@pclink.com.
Lily Krakowski on wed 27 nov 02
Nothing excuses the murder of a child. Be it because of a bullet through
the wall, parental abuse, war, terrorism, treatable disease left
untreated--but, dear Jeffrey, we all bear such wounds.
It is exactly the fragility of the human condition, it seems to me, that
makes creation so important. At that child's funeral they will use a
liturgy older than any of us; they will sing hymns whose melodies reach back
over many lives. They may use a goblet or an embroidered cloth that is
generations old. Human creation spans far more than one human life...
That, I think, is what craft is about. There are artifacts made on the way
to the gas chambers; and artifacts made in the Japanese prisoner of war
camps, an artifacts made in the Gulag, and in the VietCong jails--and no
doubt artifacts made by the slaves on plantations, and galley slaves, and
desperate men on Devil's Island...and on and on...The makers may have died,
often horrible deaths. But the creation goes on, and it is, I think, our
greatest hope.
May I suggest we all look at what we are making and ask: is it right this
should live when that child died-- And if that pot does not meet that
criterion it should return to the clay bin...
May you find comfort in the work of your hands.
Lili Krakowski
P.O. Box #1
Constableville, N.Y.
(315) 942-5916/ 397-2389
Be of good courage....
| |
|
