Susan Palmer's Exquisite Now

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  • Follow your curiosity

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    I like serendipitous encounters. I had been trying to get my mind around a particular area of quantum physics and stumbled on Roger Penrose, the Nobel prize-winning physicist who shared a Wolf prize with Stephen Hawking and who did the math on how stars collapse to form black holes. I found a YouTube video interview with Roger Penrose that I completely could not follow, and as I was sitting there feeling dumb, YouTube dished up another random video, a Ted Talk with Dominic Walliman, whose specialty is explaining quantum physics to kids. There were many fine moments in his 15-minute talk, but my favorite came at the end when he said: “You know, science shouldn’t be about whether you’re good at it or not. It should only be about whether you’re interested. …. There’s so much good information out there these days, just pick a subject that you’re interested in, find some material and then from there, follow your curiosity.”

    I think “Follow your curiosity” will be my mission statement for 2022.

  • To love them all

    Canadian singer/songwriter Bruce Cockburn performed in Eugene Sunday and I’m so glad we went (vaccine cards required, audience all masked). His voice is powerful as ever and the guitar work intricate and evocative, the way he always is. I still remember the moment I first heard a Bruce Cockburn song. I was living in Bellingham and “Waiting for the Moon to Show” came on the radio. I had to stop what I was doing and listen. Been listening to his music ever since. He reminds me of a renegade Catholic priest who doesn’t care what the Vatican is saying or doing because he’s busy feeding hungry people. Last night he played two of four new songs written this year and one of them was just stunning in its sharpness and simplicity. Titled “Orders,” it’s essentially a loving list. Here’s the second verse:

    The cynic and the crooked priest
    The woman wise the sullen beast
    The enemy outside the gate
    The friend who leaves it all to fate
    The drunk who tags the bathroom stall
    The proud boy rushing to his fall,
    The list is long; as I recall
    Our orders said to love them all

  • Beginner’s mind, learner’s mind, expert’s mind

    Chinese silk embroidery from the Jordan Schnitzer Museum collection/Susan Palmer

    I started the morning thinking about beginner’s mind, what it means, how to achieve it. I wondered if there were research about the efficacy of this practice and typed into the Google search engine “beginner’s mind,” limiting my search to sites with a .gov address. Surprisingly, the first thing listed was not research but an essay by a physician about the value of bringing “beginner’s mind” to patient encounters. I had been thinking about it from a different perspective, being a learner of something new, not an expert using the practice of beginner’s mind to inform my work. But I like this redirect.

    I’ll use it today, a writing day for me.

    The image above is an example of stunning embroidery practiced by Chinese textile artists. Despite its age, about 170 years, it’s vibrant, intricate, alive. Part of the Jordan Schnitzer’s Museum of Art collection, I can’t help but think the artist brought beginner’s mind to what is a deeply technical challenge. I know a little, a very little, about this kind of embroidery, because I’ve been practicing it for a couple of years. I’m part way through a Trish Burr design, and this practice, currently known as thread painting, uses single strands of thread (the Chinese used silk, but today, cotton is also commonly used), to create these lush images. The stitches, essentially straight lines of less than 1/8 inch to 1/2 inch long, result in the most opulent look.

    Susan Palmer

    My little owl is a work in progress, and I would say that rather than being in beginner’s mind, I’m more in learner’s mind. I wonder if it’s possible to hold a mutual awareness.