Orientation Week

Journal Entry: Tuesday, January 23, 2024

OK, this all started with a simple idea. Since I am usually sitting all day either in front of the easel or at the collage table, or at the computer, or reading a book, that’s a lot of sitting all day.

I decided to experiment with not going for one longish walk a day but rather go out for several small walks of about 10+ minutes each. Just a quick walk around the block. So I started taking different little walks around the neighborhood and timing them with my stop watch on my phone. This way: 7.5 minutes. That way 9.5 minutes. Around that way 16 minutes, etc. So I would have an idea of what those different little trails would add up to.

Then I started thinking, since I am an artist and loose track of time and am not even sure what day it is most of the time, how will I remember to break loose and head out the door that many times a day? I could use a timer maybe or something.

But then I had the idea when I woke up one recent morning, “Hey, what about thinking of it like the college days, that you have to walk from one class the the next all day long.” I thought hum… fun idea.

Then I started thinking about the idea of what if I set up different activities as if they are classes, Painting Studio class, Collage Studio class. Meanwhile I have been getting a few books in the mail the last week or so that I bought for research purposes for the Creative Lifestyle articles I am doing including; Syllabus, What it Is and Making Comics by Lynda Berry, those books turned out to be set up as courses that she had taught at university level. I like her ideas and style and thought I might be able to use them for journaling and do more drawing (my grandson Henry just turned 4 so I want to send him drawing lessons by weekly mail correspondence.) So that inspired me to follow Ray Johnson’s example of his New York Correspondence School. So I cooked up my own Letterhead.

My Daughter Noor-un-Nisa came up with nickname The Big Chili for Albuquerque which is a great reference to The Big Apple. For Henry I will probably start with the Letters and Numbers. Here one, the Letter C…

I also bought some books from Julia Cameron whose first book was the Artist’s Way which I never read before. Then there are the three anthology volumes of the Outlaw Bible of American Poetry, Literature and Essays which should kind of catch me up on a lot of post WWII writers. About 1,700 pages worth for those three volumes together.

I also bought several books to finish my 13 volume set of the Complete Works of Hazrat Inayat Khan, the final volume just finally completed in 2022. It is all of the materials from the archives - which I have visited - in Suresnes outside of Paris, France and I know one of the archivists, a former professor of comparative religions. So I am planning to catch up on all of that reading too.

All of that is going to keep me busy the next year or two as research for my book which will serve as my dissertation.

Bang! So I am in orientation week at the Touchonian Institute, a part of the International Royal Academy of Post Dogmatist Arts and Letters working out my curriculum, syllabi and class schedule now that I have the school books I am going to be reading. I am going to see if I can actually organize my time to cover all of those bases on a weekly schedule as if in college. It is probably going to be 18 credit hours worth! Maybe I’ll award myself another D.Litt. once I finish my dissertation.

And all of that to help me remember to go out for short walks all day long.