SUDDEN ELEVATION
Idealism#friendship: A collaborative work: necklace designed by Lisa Kotnik, radically sensual poet; stones and faux gems selected by Christy with these instructions: "I want something dramatic that dangles." The origin of the individual parts? Not elephant tusks but the teeth of walruses, the sweat of the third world.
Symbolism#reason: The resistance to symbolism wakes us. Makes us realize, this is the skin, bone, tusk of an elephant. Animal parts once sanctified in rituals challenged with new consciousness or fashion masquerading as conscience. The human ego's easy slide into anthropomorphism supplanted by a recognition of the other's (i.e. elephant's) integrity.
ANIMISM: 1) Organic development and soul are inseparable. 2) Natural objects are conscious. 3) Spirit exists separable from the body.NEO-ANIMISM: 1) Outside each person exists a world (animals, inanimate objects, minerals, rills) that may enjoy contact but maintains its own integrity. This essence, soul, bedrock demands respect. 2) The "other" is not an extension of any individual.
Environmentalism#fairplay: Trying the dead is the foolish act of a bully. The wearing of an ivory ornament: choose one: the elevation of African culture/a token of the aristocracy. Elephants have been observed recouping pilfered tusks and the ivory bracelet of a woman on safari. Pachyderms can recognize each other by their tusks: the color, scars, etc. Colonialism#adventure: Should I search for my jewels that sank into the sea as the French branch of my family scrambled to escape the great uprising and fire on St. Thomas. What were they doing in 1805 with three ships in Santo Domingo. Two ships lost in the Caribbean. My surviving relatives formed a circus in Charleston.