John Oswald
Focusing on a goal is good. Or perhaps it's better to have goals and a desire to reach them but to focus on the journey. I think that's where I've been mixed up in the past. I am a journey man without a doubt. I've never subscribed to goals. The arrival of Chris Szarka in my life is changing that. Slowly. Much too slow for his liking but that's how it goes.
RAAM is a big journey with different goals, not all of them fully developed yet. The big and easy goal - not to achieve but to set - is finishing the race while raising funds and awareness for Sick Kids. These are the Meta goals. I'll talk more about what else I hope to achieve in the near future.
But the journey!? Man I love the journey. And here's why - if I were focused on the goal I'd miss how fantastic a stop along the way can be regardless of whether it proceeds beyond that or not. I guess I'm talking about being present. And there is success in being present.
To wit - my last Saturday conversation with John Oswald. We sat on couches at The Edward Day Gallery - thank you Mary Sue, thank you Kelly - and talked. Conversation is good. Conversation with someone who can converse is great. Conversation with someone who can converse about a common idea/goal can be transcendent. Presence and a state of openness in a conversation like that can, if you'll let it, help to develop an idea in ways you would never think of on your own. But you will miss those ideas, that opportunity for development if you have in your head what you want your idea to be and you're closed off to it being anything other than that. I'm learning to let my ideas be bigger than me and isn't that swell because I'm a small guy. Ideas want to be huge and it takes a team most times to make them so.
We approached John Oswald, a multi-disciplinary artist from Toronto, to do a piece on our RAAM bid that we could then auction off to further raise funds for the cause. I had a very distinct idea of what I wanted it to be. John e mailed me back saying that he wasn't sure that he was the man for the job but that we should get together to talk about it nevertheless.
The opportunity to talk with a creative talent like John Oswald is something one should capitalize no matter what. It's an opportunity afterall.
It was truly a lovely discussion. It meandered in every way to Sunday and was like, for me, a roller coaster at an amusement park, ups, downs and sideways I didn't see coming but that were exhilirating when they did. It served me too, beneficial in that I got to talk about what SKRAAM is and what we hope it can be - something I need practice at - plus I got to listen to a very bright man's take on that. He's not a cyclist, he's an artist, and I guess in some way so are we. We need to adopt the same attitude so that we may flow with the inspiration come June. As I spoke about something I knew only in the abstract but also quite well - riding a bike (the part I know well) for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week ( the part I don't) he flew all around it with attached/unattached ideas. We both went off on tangents but, ultimately, I felt that we were anchored by the same thing which was a desire to work together on something SKRAAM related. It wasn't the idea I knew when I arrived for the talk but it was the idea evolved through collaboration. I was left with the responsibility of letting go of what this could be and listening to what it had become in this man's mind and then again via our interaction. It was brilliant. And, in the end, it was whole. A complete experience.
While John has a terrific idea for a piece that reaches a lot of goals for all of us the conversation, in and of itself, was more than I could ever hope for in a collaborative sense. We walked away from one another committing to the next step on the road towards our goal of working together. The journey we will take in steps.
Just as, when we ride, Sam and I will be looking up the road for the next landmark - a bridge, a roadsign, a bright light at night - that will break the huge goal of pedalling into Atlantic City into a string of smaller, yet equally important successes along the way.
RAAM is a big journey with different goals, not all of them fully developed yet. The big and easy goal - not to achieve but to set - is finishing the race while raising funds and awareness for Sick Kids. These are the Meta goals. I'll talk more about what else I hope to achieve in the near future.
But the journey!? Man I love the journey. And here's why - if I were focused on the goal I'd miss how fantastic a stop along the way can be regardless of whether it proceeds beyond that or not. I guess I'm talking about being present. And there is success in being present.
To wit - my last Saturday conversation with John Oswald. We sat on couches at The Edward Day Gallery - thank you Mary Sue, thank you Kelly - and talked. Conversation is good. Conversation with someone who can converse is great. Conversation with someone who can converse about a common idea/goal can be transcendent. Presence and a state of openness in a conversation like that can, if you'll let it, help to develop an idea in ways you would never think of on your own. But you will miss those ideas, that opportunity for development if you have in your head what you want your idea to be and you're closed off to it being anything other than that. I'm learning to let my ideas be bigger than me and isn't that swell because I'm a small guy. Ideas want to be huge and it takes a team most times to make them so.
We approached John Oswald, a multi-disciplinary artist from Toronto, to do a piece on our RAAM bid that we could then auction off to further raise funds for the cause. I had a very distinct idea of what I wanted it to be. John e mailed me back saying that he wasn't sure that he was the man for the job but that we should get together to talk about it nevertheless.
The opportunity to talk with a creative talent like John Oswald is something one should capitalize no matter what. It's an opportunity afterall.
It was truly a lovely discussion. It meandered in every way to Sunday and was like, for me, a roller coaster at an amusement park, ups, downs and sideways I didn't see coming but that were exhilirating when they did. It served me too, beneficial in that I got to talk about what SKRAAM is and what we hope it can be - something I need practice at - plus I got to listen to a very bright man's take on that. He's not a cyclist, he's an artist, and I guess in some way so are we. We need to adopt the same attitude so that we may flow with the inspiration come June. As I spoke about something I knew only in the abstract but also quite well - riding a bike (the part I know well) for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week ( the part I don't) he flew all around it with attached/unattached ideas. We both went off on tangents but, ultimately, I felt that we were anchored by the same thing which was a desire to work together on something SKRAAM related. It wasn't the idea I knew when I arrived for the talk but it was the idea evolved through collaboration. I was left with the responsibility of letting go of what this could be and listening to what it had become in this man's mind and then again via our interaction. It was brilliant. And, in the end, it was whole. A complete experience.
While John has a terrific idea for a piece that reaches a lot of goals for all of us the conversation, in and of itself, was more than I could ever hope for in a collaborative sense. We walked away from one another committing to the next step on the road towards our goal of working together. The journey we will take in steps.
Just as, when we ride, Sam and I will be looking up the road for the next landmark - a bridge, a roadsign, a bright light at night - that will break the huge goal of pedalling into Atlantic City into a string of smaller, yet equally important successes along the way.
posted by Christopher Bolton at 5:51 AM
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