Together on a Small, Fragile Planet
Holiday season is approaching and I found this card in a drawer —
Given the cards this was found with, it may be a decade or more old. But I was taken with the quotation from Dr. Helen Caldicott.
We are together on a small, fragile planet, and we will either live together, or we will die together.
This is from a 1981 commencement address, which is still available as a documentary. Helen Mary Caldicott is an Australian physician, author, and anti-nuclear advocate. She founded several associations dedicated to opposing the use of nuclear power, depleted uranium munitions, nuclear weapons, nuclear weapons proliferation, and military action in general.
It struck me as even more true today, as we think about changes in society, pollution and weather patterns.
An Amazing Example of How Connected Everyone Is:
I found the card about an hour ago, just read about Connie Smith Siegel online. She died two years ago and there is a retrospective happening near me, with an open house that starts in a few minutes.
Connie received her MFA from University of Colorado, Boulder, in 1962, and first taught Art and Art History at Amarillo College in Texas. She went on to become a tenured Associate Professor and the first woman Chair of the Art Department at University of Colorado, Denver. Website here She died in 2020, Obituary here
Connie’s life was transformed by discovering the practice of Sensory Awareness. For decades Connie attended SA workshops and study groups, incorporating the practice into her teaching methodology. She was President of the Sensory Awareness Leaders Guild from ’88 –’92. With her husband Leon, Connie created an expressive process combining Drawing and Color with Sensory Awareness to explore decisions, challenges, and issues of healing. This self-guidance process became the core of Connie’s teaching, and inspiration for writing 3 her books.
For another week, Marin Art and Garden Center is doing a retrospective on her work — https://maringarden.org/connie-smith-siegel/
