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Sunday, 3rd of January 2010 at 06:13:23 PM
During last week, I took the family to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. While the Museum has a lot of interesting work on display, I was particularly interested in one piece which I had read about in a book by Lewis Hyde, entitled Trickster Makes This World. It is a work by Marcel Duchamp entitled “The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors”, or “The Large Glass”. It is indeed, a large work between sheets of glass, supported by a metal border and a piece of metal which almost looks like the hinge of a window pane running through the bottom third of the piece. In the upper panel suspends the bride, the lower contains the bachelors.
According to Hyde, Duchamp wrote that “The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors” was a “delay in glass”. The Bride still retains an infinite number of possiblities for her life, standing on the hinge between desire and fulfillment. Fulfillment has its advantages, to be sure, but it also has it’s drawbacks; fulfillment weds us to a choice, and choices both define and place limitations on the future. Duchamp is not necessarily stating, “never chose”; as Hyde states, “a ‘delay’ both suspends but not suspends activity.” The action will continue, the choice will be made. However, Duchamp shares this moment with the viewer as if to say, “we are all brides sitting on the hinge of possibility.” Regardless of choices we have made, or how we view ourselves — or how others view us — right now, at this moment, we still have infinite possibilities in front of us.
I find that those times I feel at my lowest is when I feel I have no choice, or that something is totally out of my control. And yet, even during those times, if I take a moment, I do see that I have choices and there are possibilities (even if most of those possibilities simply involve changing how I feel about the situation). When I sit, like that bride, on the hinge of possibility, eyes not filled with dreamy stars but clear and bright, my fear subsides and I make a decision with calm and confidence.
Every New Year is a time for both reflection and resolution. Whether you are making resolutions for yourself or for your business, recognize that possibilities before you are perhaps greater than you might initially realize. Be that bride on a hinge, stay suspended there for a moment and take wonder in the possibilities that are actually available to you.
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Monday, 28th of December 2009 at 10:29:31 AM
This is the gift-giving season. And, as we know, it is better to give than to receive. If you’re like me, you’ve bought and exchanged gifts (and perhaps had some of those gifts exchanged at the store afterwards) and, maybe, even now Aunt Minnie is wearing one of the sweaters you bought her and nephew [...]
Sunday, 29th of November 2009 at 04:46:30 PM
Thanksgiving Sunday is hardly the day to talk about keeping hungry. If you’re like me, you’ve had three days of turkey, stuffing, potatoes and pies, plus all the weird side dishes that your mother served and that you hated growing up but now can’t do without. You’re probably sitting in front of a TV, watching [...]
Friday, 27th of November 2009 at 07:02:06 AM
We learn to share in day one of kindergarten (if not long before). Of course, what we learn to “share” are things, like toys. Then we learn to share friends. We learn to share time. When we fall in love we learn to share our dreams and desires. Sharing is a [...]
Wednesday, 14th of October 2009 at 03:51:31 AM
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Sunday, 16th of August 2009 at 02:33:03 PM
There is a great TED talk given by Malcolm Gladwell (link here) in which Gladwell talks about the findings of Howard Moskowitz, a psychophysicist who has made a career out of consumer preferences.
In the early 1970’s, Pepsi asked Dr. Moskowitz to determine which percentage of Aspartame it should put into Diet Pepsi to give it [...]
Saturday, 8th of August 2009 at 08:14:10 AM
Two years ago, for reasons I won’t go into here, I bought a turntable. It was quite accidental, but now I find myself scouring e-bay and other sources for records. My wife thinks I’m crazy (or it’s another reason for her to think I’m crazy) but I now am totally into vinyl. Some say the [...]
Thursday, 6th of August 2009 at 04:21:30 AM
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It was, as [...]
Monday, 3rd of August 2009 at 04:56:57 AM
Today’s New York Times has an interesting article about how people visit museums. The author juxtaposed the pre-technological age habit of “deep-diving” into literature and art versus today’s “smash-n-grab” approach (walk in to a museum, grab a headset, walk through, drop headset, have a latte).
I think that we all feel like we are skimming the [...]
Sunday, 2nd of August 2009 at 10:46:45 AM
OK, so you’ve ridden out the worst of the this economic storm. You’re still alive, but your car’s sputtering and running out of gas. And it’s dark and you’re not sure where exactly you are or going. It there was a soundtrack to your life, now would be the time when the music raises the [...]
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