I was so grateful recently, to have a small troupe of dedicated and intentional activists for community contact me to ask if I had something to donate to their cause. Their cause is a true sense of We. They are creating Terra Cultura-a hub for teaching about sustainable living through community, housing, agriculture and the arts among other passions that they bring to the farm table. Great!!
I knew I needed to find something to donate.
Since sustainable often means "to keep in existence," I ran to a thrift store to see what I could find to keep in existence. At the African Alliance, I found a white girl. A Greek to be specific. Her head to be exact. Maybe she was Athena or maybe even Helen of Troy. She was chalky white. She reminded me of a goddess and an oracle. I painted her in terracotta to honor the Greek polychrome tradition. I christened her Terra Mar to honor Terra Cultura and to bring in the sea, the keeper of ancient beginnings. Her spirit was given a Kōan I had written to invite contemplation of beginnings, struggles, and results. The invitation was to contemplate the Kōan: "The pearl forms, in a struggle, with the sand." It actually also forms in a struggle with a parasite, but that's another story and an appropriate coincidence for our current times. Terra Mar became an oracle, when her Kōan was written on a tag. Soon, other tags followed with random words for meditation, practices for inspiration, and questions for contemplation. The tags were placed in a shell, which fits behind her head for seekers to find and use. She became a Book Arts project.
I could never quite photograph her, as she seemed to elude my camera. If you, her owner, reads this, please post a picture of her in the comments. Otherwise, readers will find her in chalky white, under construction, in the sidebar, and her final state is left to our shared imaginations. In the end, she had a crown of shells, sea glass, and pebbles; carrying the earth and sea together along with our detritus of glass. She auctioned off in a bidding war, which made me smile. I knew she would find her owner. She claimed him before he even knew he had been found. Such is the way with oracles. May we all now reclaim our sense of the community of We. May we support non-profits like Terra Cultura to carry the sense of unity inside. May they continue strong.
To read more about Terra Cultura, which is coming soon to a real and virtual landscape near you, please follow this link: https://terracultura.org/
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