Refuge

 This sign appeared in the studio I teach at last week. I chuckled but at the same time felt grateful; lately the world feels like it's going down the tubes & while I do what I can to turn it back, everyone needs rest & refuge. My pottery community provides that for me. It's heartening to know it's not just me. 

There's another aspect, as well. I still believe that we need places, social places, where we can just be people; friends and neighbors. I believe this is the only possible path to the healing of this country. For  example: I have students who I know are evangelicals, who I think probably voted for trump. I also have several student who are trans. I see them all laughing together, sharing successes & failures in clay...and then, as part of the conversation, sometimes it comes up that one of them is trans. It's hard to continue to hold hateful beliefs when the person you've been told to hate is sitting beside you lending you their wire tool. 
This is the power of community. This is where our shared humanity cannot be denied, and where it has the power to heal us. 

Anyway, blah-blah-blah, new post at Patreon.