Acid-Free Intimacy

The chances of having entered this world as this particular set of atoms, expressed in human form, as opposed to any other set of atoms, makes me a very lucky set. This fact should bring all endless electric joy! It also makes me realize I'm not separate from any other set of atoms. Separation is an illusion. Einstein and Buddhism both call and called reality an illusion. Today some call reality a simulation. If we are a simulation, we come from the same substrate. If someone once thought to make a simulated reality this real, and succeeded, then thoughts become things. We are creators. We create to show ourselves parts of the human experience that aren't commonly seen or easily conveyed through everyday language. And if in our heads we wield so much power, we should live to feel joyous, loving and compassionate. And we should make it our goal to create these emotions in others too, for those who are willing to accept them.

I use a medium that is near and dear to me, as a writer. It is the unsung swiss army knife of history. We have long used it to preserve our past, share knowledge, print money and cover our walls. We wipe our mouth with it when we've finished nourishing our bodies. We write our name on it to signify our word is our bond. But the most joyous purpose this creator has found for paper, is the versatile, magical and unpredictable art of Origami.

It is deeply cathartic to fold and crease pieces of paper to see the edges meet like a jigsaw puzzle. It is an even more purgative experience to learn to be at peace with the edges not meeting precisely. I practice acceptance through making spheres out of paper. When I walk into a forest, I take in its entire beauty. I don't single out one aspect and say, "Look at that tree, it's really odd compared to the rest." I subconsciously accept that tree and every tree around it as part of the forest. It's a natural thought that I have tried to apply to any social interaction. When I'm making origami and I'm folding a piece of paper whose 'grain' goes slightly against the crease I'm trying to make, I will concede to the direction it wants to take as an exercise, a meditation on acceptance. I don't force that piece of paper to be like the rest. The deviation is always minimal but serves as a reminder that, if one nitpicks a butterfly, one will find ugliness in its beauty. But if one takes a step back and looks at the larger picture, the colorful identity of the butterfly becomes a part of the environment that gave birth to it, and we see beauty in the whole. When I become truly comfortable in and wholly accepting of the ever changing nature of reality, I am better able to see the design hidden behind the surface and bring some of that design into a space we can visibly perceive and be touched by. For the good of all sentient beings.

To bend blank planes into three-dimensional shapes and give a voice to wordless pages, is to commune with my innermost creator. I create what is called Modular Origami. It is a marriage between tradition and innovation, form and function. It's a luminous dichotomy between the parts and the whole. It's transparent. You can see into its structure. When I first started exploring the artform, I learned how to make a basic icosahedron, a 20 faced expression of matter. Eventually, an intuitive urge made me fold beyond tradition until I had something that wasn't quite what influenced me. This is an original design.

Sometimes, in the right circumstances, in the right frame of mind, we channel something beyond what we normally perceive. Something that is sourced beyond our normally limited sight, that uses us as a lens and conduit to witness and express deeper truths. Through personal experience, I'm convinced we live in a simulated reality. It is a true joy to explore it creating three dimensional objects that don't occur naturally or in modern or ancient human design. I'm inspired by works of art that channel, art that tells me we've only just begun to tap into what Einstein was experiencing when he said he relied on instinct. To create is to expose your essence in tangible ways and show others parts of themselves they fear to explore.

When you cross method with madness you get exploration. Intuition and calculation are twin branches on a mother tree. We should see both the big picture and the details, so that we get lost in neither. We create out of what seems to be nothing. All novelty and progress we've known, first started as nothing. Any manmade object you can see or hold in your hand was first only as solid as the thought of it. Like this paper sculpture that I convinced to be a lamp, we are here not only to become what we will be, but also to illuminate those who will come after us. You are the ultimate master of yourself, your mortal reality and your immortal reality.