Michael Field's Blog

  Warmest greetings to our family and friends from Michael and Lenora,   We extend our most sincere holiday greetings knowing this will get to you very late in the holiday season (or early in the New Year. Honestly, we did think of you somewhere in there between the turkey leftovers and the ball dropping!) As we strive to extend the joy and blessings of the holidays throughout the year, hopefully the timing of this missive will not be an issue. Those who complain will be remembered in the airing of the grievances during Festivus 2023! 2022 was a _______ year! Fill in your own choice of adjective, invective, or expletive and it will probably apply to our year also as this was a roller coaster year, one with a lot of ups and some precipitous downs. Michael wrote a piece titled “The River Runs”* (more on that later) which starts off as a peaceful trip floating on an inner tube down a tranquil river. Soon the river hits rocks and the raft is buffeted by a stretch of rapids. Inner tub

When the Roller Coaster That Was 2022 Executed a Barrel Roll Michael Field   Everybody, every year, has ups and downs. But sometimes there is a chain of events in which the lowest lows and the highest highs tumble one after the other in quick succession leaving your stomach in your throat just as you want to shout with joy. When the scream that started its rise from your body in terror emerges as one of jubilation. Like a roller coaster car whipping through a barrel roll, up becomes down and sad becomes glad. Such was 2022. My wife gets annoyed by my story telling style as I like to start at the beginning. Or, as she says, I relate the history of dirt. So, to tell the story of our 2022 trip to the Chautauqua Institution, I need to go back to the 1990s. During those years, we were close to a group of our friends who each year would make the trek to an intellectual El Dorado known simply as Chautauqua. We didn’t know exactly in what far land this modern Alexandria lay, but we kne

  Painting a Story – A Metaphorical Tone Poem on ‘Writer as Artist’ Michael Field     You don’t know the artist, but she is a friend of a friend, and, for purposes not yet revealed, you have been invited to her studio to watch her work. She opens the door with a smile and beckons you to sit in the one uncluttered chair. Without words, she makes it clear that her focus is her art and conversation is a distraction, so you settle into the silence, open to the experience. You look around trying to glean some hints as to what will come. The artist looks like a hippie who never left the commune and, for a wistful moment, you are taken back to your college days and the bohemian lifestyle you eschewed for corporations and conventionality. The studio is a comfortable space, tastefully, yet not overly, decorated. Whimsical objects from foreign travels intermingle in disorganized fashion with the trappings of daily living. From the art that is visible, no one theme stands out; the overa

The River Runs Michael Field - Fall 2022 Published in the Anthology  Memory As Muse, Then and Now , December 2022 Have you ever drifted down a lazy, winding river on an inner tube? Maybe you were in the great outdoors, dappled sunlight filtering through the tree canopy; or maybe you escaped the throngs at a sun-drenched water park to drift in the shade of tall palms lining a twisting lagoon. It’s been a while since I got my feet wet, yet I am often immersed in that experience as I ride on an inner tube down a stream of consciousness, my mind wending randomly from thought to thought. Casting off from the riverbank, my black rubber craft is captured by the current, my thoughts turned first this way then that. Relaxation flows like an elixir through my body as anxieties and cares are displaced by misty nostalgia and rose-tinted images. With dream-like magic, my inner tube often transforms into a flying carpet capable of taking me anywhere, or to any time. This trip, the undulating

  Chautauqua Institution – My Happy Place – Part 1 - by Michael Field Published in the December 2022 Edition of CP Connections   There are many here at Carolina Preserve who are already familiar with Chautauqua Institution and its many offerings; for the rest, I want to explain why it is my Happy Place. It is hard to sum it all up in a few words; however, the simplest description is that it is summer camp for thinking adults. It provides a smorgasbord of intellectual, cultural, and spiritual stimulation from which one can take as much, or as little as one desires, all while enjoying the cool air and beauty of its lakeside location in upstate New York. The primary reason for going is the programming – lectures, concerts, exhibits, performances, and entertainment across a broad spectrum of interests. The Institution breaks the summer into 9 sessions, each one week long focusing on a different central topic. Each weekday morning features a keynote lecture delivered by an internatio

In a Christmas movie I watched tonight, a wife accuses her husband of ‘overcompensating’ as he insists that their kids’ Christmas experience be fantastic. Immediately afterward, the plot makes him face his Scrooge of a father, Robin Williams playing against character. The wife could have been speaking to me as I, too, work hard to assure that Christmas will be fantastic. I do it for our kids, but also for the kid in me. In addition, each year, I work hard to ascertain the true meaning of Christmas; more specifically, why do I, as an atheist, celebrate Christmas as a spiritually transformative experience. Some parts of the answer are clear - light in all its myriad forms at the holidays, childhood joy, hope, family, tradition - these are all factors in both Christmas and Chanukah. Some parts of the answer lie beyond my grasp, but that in itself is a reason I keep celebrating- to keep reaching for the answer. This year I will add ‘magic’ to the list of answers. Not sleight of hand

  This piece is titled "Dreams" and, sooner or later, it will get to that topic, just not now. First, I need to take you, the reader, on an inner tube ride down a stream of consciousness. Yet, a dream is simply a stream of consciousness that happens while you are asleep. So, in a sense, we are on topic – it just won’t seem that way. Lately, I have been clarifying my thoughts on religion. Actually, I have been making statements about my beliefs then seeing if I believe those statements. For most of my life, I have kept my beliefs to myself for no better reason than fear that any articulation would be an imperfect representation of them, and I was still hung up on perfectionism.   Having removed the word ‘perfect’ from my vocabulary some years ago, I am now without an excuse not to share my views beyond the obvious one that no one really cares to hear them. Religion is an intensely personal thing. That said, organized religion is built on canonical beliefs, a fact which fli