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The moon surrounded by a lake of light. Yellow moon, low and full and the bats, thousands of them leaving their expensive house at sunset. Dipping low, close to our heads, always the fear of guano, as they stream toward Lake Alice and the moon. Les chauve-souris, the bald mice, ravenous for insects. What of those wings occasionally popping in our ears as they almost fly into us. They are not perfect. Driving south from Atlanta on I75, watching a full ghost moon moving in my field of vision from left to right, slowly resolving into a huge round of pale gold. On the way home, I stopped in Macon where a friend introduced me to the I Ching. Throwing pennies, I concentrated on heads; mostly heads came up. |
Question: how to bring critical attention to my work without anger or groveling or going batty like Francis Farmer? Answer: Skinning.
"This hexagram describes your situation in terms of stripping away a protective cover. It emphasizes that radically changing and renewing the way you present yourself is the adequate way to handle it. To be in accord with the time, you are told to: skin!
Image of the Situation
Associated Contexts Skin, KO: take off the covering, skin or hide: change, renew, molt; remove, peel off; revolt, overthrow, degrade from office; leather armor, protection."*
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Amazing, to return to armor. On Fay's table again. This time with images of removing gray matter from my heart. Taking the brain out of the heart so I can see. Gold rain entering the heart. I had just returned from Atlanta and having a small basal cell carcinoma removed from the side of my nose. The doctor had recommended a peel. Another level: A friend who works at a club in Atlanta where the strippers are of all shapes, sizes, ages wants me to come and learn how to strip. I had begun to think of stripping. *Translated by Stephen Karcher and Rudolf Ritsema, Barnes and Noble, NY, NY, 1994. |
Christy's manipulation of a photo by Roddy McDowall. Christy Sheffield Sanford, Copyright © 1996.