Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Busy Signal

Street View of The Naam

I just spent some time getting ready for an art show that I hung yesterday at  The Naam, one of my favourite restaurants and a Vancouver institution in the vegetarian world. It's been around since the '60's and if you squint  just right as you sit at your table there, you might catch a hint of patchouli and know that the '60's are still alive and well . 

A table by the window with "Andy's Buddhas"


I could say I've been busy but that would go against something deep inside me. I remember the '90's when "busy" was the answer that everyone wore like a badge. I always wondered what it was all about. What was the deeper meaning of busy?  I had some theories but never cracked the busy code completely. I never felt busy even in the '90's.  I have some sort of internal compass that completely lacks the pointer toward busy.  Recently I discovered this wonderful poem about Busy by Amy Krouse Rosenthal.  I hope you're not to busy to read it!

Room View of The Naam


I will pop in some pics from my show.  And if you're in the Vancouver area, pop in and have a look and don't forget to have the sesame fries and miso gravy, maybe a piece of Shakti cake with hemp seed whipped cream. Happy summer days to you! May you lie on the grass and watch the stars. May you taste the rich tang of a summer tomato warm off the vine. May summer live on in your heart, long after it's warm, lazy rays have made way for the richness of autumn.

My trusty assistant helps me hang the show

Busy


"How you been?
Busy.How's work?
Busy.
How was your week?
Good. Busy.
You name the question, busy is the answer. Yes, yes, I know, we are all terribly busy doing terribly important things. But I think more often than not, busy is simply the most acceptable knee-jerk response.
Certainly there are more interesting, more original and more accurate ways to answer the question "How are you?" I'm hungry for a burrito; I'm envious of my best friend; I'm frustrated by everything that's broken in my house; I'm itchy.
Yet busy stands alone as the easiest way of summarizing all that you do and all that you are. "I am busy" is the short way of saying -- implying -- "My time is filled, my phone does not stop ringing and you (therefore) should think well of me."
Have people always been this busy? Did cave men think they were busy, too? ("This week is crazy -- I've got about 10 caves to draw on. Can I meet you by the fire next week?")
I have a hunch that there is a direct correlation between the advent of coffee bars and the increase in busy-ness. Look at us. We're all pros now at hailing cabs/making Xeroxes/carpooling/performing surgery with a to-go cup in hand. We're skittering about like hyperactive gerbils, high not just on caffeine, but on caffeine's luscious byproduct, productivity. Ah, the joy of doing, accomplishing, crossing off.
As kids, our stock answer to most every question ("What did you do at school today?" "What's new?") was, "Nothing." In our country's history there have been exactly seven kids who responded with a statement other than "nothing," and three of those were named Hanson. Then, somewhere on the way to adulthood, we each took a 180-degree turn. We cashed in our "nothing" for "busy."
I'm starting to think that, like youth, the word nothing is wasted on the young. Maybe we should try re-introducing it into our grown-up vernacular. Nothing. I say it a few times and I can feel myself becoming more quiet, decaffeinated, Zen-ish. Nothing. Now I'm picturing emptiness, a white blanket, a couple ducks gliding on a still pond. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. How did we get so far away from it?"
Amy Krouse Rosenthal 

An orange human and a red Buddha

30 comments:

  1. ahhh! i love seeing the orange human!! and your art in the restaurant...

    i'd love a slice of shakti cake with hemp seed whipped cream...

    xoxo

    ReplyDelete
  2. You don't look so busy, thank goodness. Your work looks wonderful in this space and what a space! I'm drooling over the shakti cake! We go to a restaurant called the "Dharma" and boy is it good...the American saute is heavenly fresh.
    I like the busy writing. I'm almost never busy but I watch it all the time...so easy to get sucked into busy.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. And in fact I never feel busy. I don't actually get busy. I like the sound of "Dharma". In fact I think I'd go to any restaurant called Dharma.

      Delete
  3. Hey Orange Lady! I love this post! It made me laugh! What a lovely quaint place to show your art... So true - "busyness" has become justification/validation for our existence... My parents' generation saw the "work ethic" and productivity as valued above all and saw "creativity" and "spirituality" as a waste of time and mind! oh dear... I was born into the wrong family :) And now we have turned to the "busyness" of the techno world to numb ourselves... Am currently weaning myself off the internet - sigh...(not blogging - that doesn't count :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. glad for your smile! yeah, I think it's good to take an internet fast sometimes! yes, busy is an interesting subject!

      Delete
    2. Well, I didn't mean to make it sound like an opening line for Jerry Lewis! :)

      Delete
  4. Lovely. Hope it's a great show, meaning I hope you sell some art!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. thanks Connie. It will be interesting to see. The verdict is still out on restaurant sales. I sold 2 at the last show but they were to the owners of the cafe!

      Delete
  5. "BUSY" is a choice. i am the only person i know who is not busy. it could be because the latest i rise in the morning is 05.00 hrs. i know, things can be more complex...looking after my mum i did not have time to brush my teeth sometimes...but i was not "BUSY"...my attention just needed to be somewhere else.
    Sorry, Carole..."BUSYNESS" is something i discuss quite a bit.
    Good show!! Nice venue. i knew i should have gone to Vancouver in the 70's....
    PS "GOOD SHOW" = English expression of approbation...as in..."Good show, old chap." !!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, busyness is a juicy topic! And I could see that you would not be the busy type.

      Thanks for the "good show" We do use that expression here in Canada sometimes. Haven't heard it in a bit though.

      Delete
  6. Loved this post and poem, interestingly on the subject of 'busy' I read recently that this is more so in the USA, here in the UK when we ask "are you alright" there could be a number of varying responses, okay, good, not so bad, plodding on, very rarely do I hear busy!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. that's so interesting that this answer is not so common in the UK. I do here it less these days, especially now that I live on a smallish island.

      Delete
  7. Everyday, the farm crew at Green Gulch chants:

    Now as we enter our day of activity
    Fully engaged in helping others
    Let us remember the one who is not busy
    and be free from self giving.

    Also, Darlene Cohen wrote a book on this!

    http://www.amazon.com/One-Who-Not-Busy-The/dp/1586852515

    Love the art so much...how do you do it?!

    -Kogen

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hello Kogen. What a lovely chant to start the day. Will check out the book link. Just finished reading "Gardening At Dragon's Gate" so have fond thoughts of the Green Gulch Garden.

      Thanks for the kind words on the art. Most of it is mixed media on canvas (with acrylic paint)

      Delete
  8. Congratulations Carole! Lovely to see the orange human with the red Buddha. Thanks to you, I have been to Nam, and did taste the miso gravy. Heaven! If I were close I would come see your works in person.
    Busy...I think it relates to the stock market, the ridiculous notion of trickle down economics and the Puritan work ethic. But then, it is political season here....I enjoy being fully engaged in life, but I do not enjoy busy. AS always I am appreciative of your insights, art and thoughts.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Leslie. I think you are so right in your analysis of busy and then there is a whole lot more.

      Yes this is it, engaged but not busy.

      Delete
  9. VERY fun and exciting to see your artworks on view... and see you too, Carole! That poem is great, for it's very apt expression of the "busy phenomenon." And I like what you said, about having an "internal compass that completely lacks the pointer toward busy" LOL... I prefer "engaged" myself to busy too. From next week I'm taking a digital sabbatical for two weeks and looking forward to it. But in the midst of a lot just now, especially with some interior painting at home. And I'm painting on canvas too. So it's definitely the good busy. ;o) Happy Days ((HUGS))

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. what a perfect time of year to be reinventing your living space as we head toward the time of the great indoors.

      Enjoy your digital fast. May you come back with new excitement and energy for the digital world. I think we all need to do this every now and then.

      hugs to you!

      Delete
  10. OH YAY!
    I'm so happy to see the orange human and the Red Buddha! and all the many pieces of soothing mystical beauty that flow from your hands as you stay engaged yet...not busy.

    Whataya doin'? Bein'?
    Gorgeous.

    Metta to all

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. thanks, Donna! yes, Bein is a good place and a good answer! the adult version of nothing, perhaps?

      Delete
  11. hello, lovely orange human! great show! and great insight on busy. it's an epidemic in these parts and nothing is just the right cure. thank you!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. thanks, anca! after this full week in the city I am definitely heading home to do "nothing".

      Delete
  12. Yes, yes, yes! Thank you for all of this---the colors, feelings, thoughts, and . . . still calmness. ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  13. thanks, Chris. may your day be sweet and peaceful!

    ReplyDelete
  14. This looks like a neat place to hang your work.. and also the food sounds wonderful. I will keep this one in mind if I ever drive up to Vancouver again some day.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Definitely worth the stop if you're in Vancouver (BC) as is the Marche St George where Seth had his book signing. Had an iced soy latte there on the weekend and it was excellent. So 2 more reasons to visit Vancouver!

    ReplyDelete
  16. Congratulations, Carole! Oh I wish I'd read this before going to Vancouver so I could have seen your work hanging in the Naan this week. Sigh. It looks lovely in the photos.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Carole! Yes that would have been fun. Just another reason to make a trip back there before Sept 11th!

      Delete
  17. Well hello there! In your blog entry did you base on some studies or here are only your own reflections? Can't wait to see your reply.

    ReplyDelete