Harvey-Sue

Apr 13

Madness (NFS)

I’ve been reading The Gift by Lewis Hyde. For those of y’all who haven’t read it, it starts out reflecting on how capitalism urges us to keep and hoard gifts, but a gift that stays in motion by being re-given takes on a life of it’s own, creating bonds of trust and well-being among communities. I started reading it right when I decided not to sell these kaleidoscopes, and it really inspired me. So, I’ve been giving them away with the intention that they be re-given.

So far, they’ve been going out to my comrades in madness, because their qualities (of light / patterns / color) seem to help me with mine. I’m hoping they can be a token of support through times of lunacy, loss, or rebirth (and a reminder that on the other side of lunacy is brilliance). Then, when the hard times ebb, the kaleidoscope can be passed on to someone else who’s burdened with the ‘Tock’ of ‘Tick’s’ gift of creativity.

If anyone has any ideas about how to keep track of the kaleidoscope’s journeys, please let me know; I think that’d be really cool.

Here are the first three (numbers = date made; letters = initials of the first recipient).