OK, it’s not funny anymore. It’s not charming and cozy anymore like it was in the Spring. It’s not “curiouser and curiouser” anymore like it was in the Summer. Now it’s just desperate and disgusting and downright . . . dangerous. See what’s happening? Things have gotten so chaotic and confusing that Mr. Magpie has been cornered and coerced into ALLITERATION!
Didn’t we see this coming?
Sometimes when things happen in slow motion we get lulled by the pace and don’t notice the big picture developing in front of us; we don’t recognize what is actually happening. The chicken doesn’t realize she’s being plucked when it is being done one feather at a time. The frog doesn’t realize he’s being boiled alive when the water he’s swimming in simmers slowly. But it is definitely getting hot in here and the time has come to start clucking and flapping and croaking and leaping. And voting.
But fear not! There are positive aspects to slow motion too. The freeze frame. The snapshot. The ability to get a good look at details that would otherwise be overlooked; the small things; the clues to salvation.
Art plays an important role in offering these snapshots that lay bare the clues which can lead us to the Truths which we need to enlighten us to the plucking and boiling, to the pluckers and boilers, to the fact that we’re still alive and not totally boiled or fully plucked yet. Art provides access to the Truths that empower us to act, to resist, to flip the boiling cauldron over and leap back into the wild where we all belong. We need the Truths. We need the Snapshots. We need the Art.
In our Fall 2020 issue, our 11th, we have assembled a group of exceptional Artists, our Parliament of Magpies, who provide meaningful and thought-provoking snapshots that will hopefully help us to see where we were and where we are; how it was and how it is; how we landed in this boiling cauldron and how we can escape it.
Right now, your time is precious, so use it wisely.
STUDY YOUR ELECTION BALLOTS.
REGISTER TO VOTE.
VOTE.
And if you’re feeling discouraged or desperate, if you’re feeling a sudden cool draft behind you where your feathers used to be, or feeling the heat of your hot tub reaching a temperature you haven’t felt before, relax! Take a breath. Click on to www.thievingmagpie.org and get some perspective, some clues, some Truth.