Tapestry of Life (John Dotson’s dream of April 5, 2016)
I have forgotten my lines in a drama that is about to be staged. Sometimes I am confident (but not really) that the lines will come to me naturally once the performance begins. Other times, the details of the drama are so remote that there is zero prospect of my filling my role. There are also corollary issues with technical matters. On the last night, I am charged with and engaged with creating an icon that serves as the center of a ritual movement. I am earnestly attempting, with great difficulty, to gather all the materials necessary to complete constructing this icon out of a very wide range of materials using many resources. In another phase, I am at a gathering with Lee Roloff. We are participating in a seminar of sorts, and sitting on the floor at the edge of a large rug. It is an ultra-deco tapestry, post-Piet Mondrian, the design applied, as if painted, but with a very special paint. The colors are dusty oranges, rusts, and ochres. I am aware that the tapestry is very old and has been in use for a long time—but that it shows no wear, no deterioration. There is a sense of aliveness in the materials, but it is an aliveness of a different order—rich with an aging that does not include entropy. This is the place of convening. As always with Lee, I am called to maximal attentiveness and openness to learning—Adventure, Enjoyment.