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Studying for my vacation

My goal is to finish my Indian Arts book by next Friday. To be honest as has been with many books lately I get so spun off and tangential about it I don't know if I will ever get through what is only about 80 pages with lots of pictures.

The small bits I pick up about religion and history of the Southwest tribes keeping expanding and circling around my mind. I am at the bottom of a ladder again, and I am feeling like I know nothing, which I think is the dark side of Beginner's Mind.

I start looking on Flickr, I see something else, I become transfixed by kinds of beauty I never before saw or imagined. To be honest that summarizes most of what I have been feeling here. I wish, well, I wish I could have known what it is like to be an Indian in the Southwest, to experience that crossover of tradition and the modern world. It sounds like life there is very, very low tech. When I consider the simplicity at the heart of these traditions it blows my mind and makes me feel like I am doing the wrong thing and have got to slow down.

Well, pretty soon I will be seeing it all for myself. On the reservations I won't be able to take any pictures but I will pay attention to everything and buy lots of books. I would like to buy some people's stuff, maybe out of their house, just to have that experience, but I would rather have knowledge than katsinas or pottery. If I could have anything it would be a Navajo rug, but those are very expensive.

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