In & Of Itself and Friends

Have you watched the documentary In & Of Itself?

If not, run to Hulu, either sign in or get their free introductory month, and watch the show so I can relax.

I really, really, really want you to have the experience I had.

One of amazement and delight and a mirroring of what it feels like to be human.

The whole documentary is great, but the last half hour or so is purely magical, and the magic is as much about the performer, the star of the show, as it is about the audience. The audience is the focus at the end and you get to see yourself in them. You get to see the deep, deep human desire to be seen.

You get to see what one human seeing another human does to a person’s face. You get to see person after person land in their body, home.

This morning my friend Laura Foote sent me a drawing she did of a mouse singing a ball of pizza dough. Of course she did.

Last night I was eating a cornmeal crusted goat cheese pizza while watching my new favorite show Dickinson. In the last episode I watched, Emily Dickinson went for a run with Louisa May Alcott who lectured her on the best ways to make money as a writer—bodice rippers was one option. In an earlier episode, Emily went to visit Thoreau and ended up calling him a dick as her hero fantasies about the writer came crashing down as he showed himself to be radically different in life than on the page.

Have You Watched In & Of Itself yet?

If so, what word would you choose?

And what word is behind that word, and what word is behind that word? Where does the illusion of believing in labeling the self end?

What would it feel like to have that man, Derek DelGaudio, look you in the face and say your word? What would happen in the space of the seeing? Would you become someone else?

Who?

Dear Laura Foote, I love that somehow you knew I had pizza last night after a long dry spell of beans and rice and vegetables.

Thank you for seeing me.