studio ponderings........

As I look at my schedule for the next few months I realize I better get to the library and pick up arm loads of books on CD.
Keeps me sane and the dog gets tired of my mindless babbling. As I looked through the rows and rows of books on CD searching for volume and not really concerned with the content, several jump off the shelf into my library bag.

I'm loaded and have trouble getting to the truck! The last batch of books I picked out were awful so hoping this group will be better! Racing back to the studio with my new haul. My hands slide into the bulging library bag and my fingers pluck out, "Einstein" by Walter Issacson, 18 CD's long. Whatever....... I pop in the first CD. While throwing pots I listen intently and start thinking, Do I really need to learn the Theory of Relativity? But I hang in there and start to enjoy the book. This book is not about relativity, it's about Einstein's life, foibles, genius and politics.

I work in the studio up to 12 hours a day this time of the year and this book took me a week to get through. Half way through the book I started making different pots....... could it be the "X" factor? Is it the book? Is it me listening to the book? Is it Einstein? Dunno but I am loving these new pots and the book!

There is a local blog I read daily on the town I live in. Some of the bloggers I find offensive, racist and just down right ignorant. Recently there has been a fire storm about the influx of the illegal Hispanic population "ruining" our town. I read some of the posts in disbelief, knowing some of these bloggers are my neighbors! Almost every single one of the bloggers posts anonymously. Today as the wheel spins and the clay takes shape I hear on the 17th CD, The Politics of Einstein. A history lesson of the WW1, WW2, the Prussians, the Jews, the Germans, the Americans, McCarthy era, etc etc etc...... and I am dumbstruck at the words I am hearing about the Jews during the war. It occurs to me I can substitute the word Hispanic for Jew in each and every passage of the book. I just read the exact words on the local blog. The words Hate and Fear spring to my mind. The book moves onto McCarthy and the witch hunts for communists in this country. Once again, the hair on the back of neck stands on end and I realize how perilously close we have come to another McCarthy witch hunt.

I don't know the answers but I know we better do a better job of teaching History in our schools or we will have another McCarthy era on our hands and we will our scratch our heads and wonder how in the world did this happen. Or even worse another Hitler...........

READ THIS BOOK!