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Poets, Artists And Other Fools
No amount of skillful invention can replace the essential element of imagination.
When I don’t feel in the mood for painting I go to the movies for a week or more.
Edward Hopper
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Senex and puer are not hidden. They do battle on the world-political and social stage, underpinning profound rifts between rigid conservatism and free wheeling expression evident everywhere we turn. — the senex-puer split can start wars and determine the course of history. It may be seen in the political divisions of the Vietnam era(Hillman’s writings on this topic began in 1967). It is in the suicide bombers flight towards immortality in the face of monolithic powers. It is in the confrontations between a disenfranchised youth and the World Trade Organization — The puer surfaced in the idealism of flower power. Today he infuses the mercurial minds of Silicon Valley, who show senex faces when their companies move to Wall Street. . The puer is in the twinkle-in-the-eye creatives who can never realize their vision, the senex enters at midlife, when the soul turns dry, vision has dimmed and unlived life begins to plague us. This pair is all around, roaming unrecognized and in need of our attention.
My parents married with big dreams pushing at them. Love, children, art and writing all were waiting to be created by…
