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References: Post 9. Artie Bliemisch Post 168. Ossian’s Knowledge
Bel Vionnet unfastens Ossian’s leash as white petals blow off the spirea and settle on them like flowering snow. Ossi shakes them off as soon as his leash clicks, but they cling to bel’s shirt.
“Hi Fred, we just got back from wandering around the neighborhood.”
Ossian runs a lap around the yard and then over to Arty Bliemiche’s sculpture, “Tulp Stone” and lifts a leg.
“Did you see that, Fred?”
“Yes, and I have seen Ossi do that before.”
“He has been peeing on that thing ever since he first came to us.”
“Perhaps it is meaningful to him?”
“Canine art appreciation, you mean.”
“Do Westies appreciate art?”
“Only if the scent is right.”
“There you are bel, Arty’s sculpture has it! By the way I got a cryptic text from Steve, the other day, saying he is on the way to see Hurvin in London.”
“He is staying with friends so he can see Hurvin Anderson’s work at the Tate.” (https://www.tate.org.uk/tate-etc/issue-69-spring-2026/wish-you-were-here)
“I don’t know that artist.”
Neither did we until Steve found him by accident on You Tube, an image of his painting called, “Wish You were Here”.”
“Is it abstract or figurative?”
“Oh! it is both. Wish You Were Here”, is mainly rich deep contrasting blues plus some areas of yellow green which shine like sunlight beyond shade.”
“The title is the sort of thing people write on post cards.”
“Yes, I think that is the point.”
“Oh, because he was painting in the Islands.’
“Well, because he has rendered an image of the islands, but not the usual sunny beach with umbrellas and so on.”
“Okay, Hervin is playing ironic games.”
“He is painting them, I guess, Fred.”
“There’s hidden truths in those shadows!”
“Could be, some are almost black.”
“Steve calls his work a revelation. That picture is kind of jungley, you might say.”
“That’s an extraordinary claim. Why didn’t you go too?”
“Well, I have things to do here.”
“Yes, one of them has started digging under the sculpture.”
“Fred, the painting hasn’t revealed as much to me as to Steve. I haven’t turned on the TV since Steve left.”
“I didn’t think either of you watched it much.”
“We didn’t but when Macadamia won a second term, Steve came down with a bad case.”
“Poor fellow, I dare say Hurvin will cure him.”
“Well, he gets it over there too. Our friends follow American politics. They are addicts.”
“So, that’s why you stayed home!”
“Part of it, for sure. I am interested in the revelations of science.”
“I never thought of science in that way.”
“They have given us the powers of technology.”
“Yeah, bel, and we are enjoying the benefits.”
“Do you think they outweigh the damage we are doing?”
“That’s the question, alright.”
Ossie zooms over and starts biting and pulling on bel’s shoelaces. “See, he is feeling left out of the conversation.”
I bend d0wn to give him an ear rub, which he usually enjoys, but today he runs off after a crow perched on the Tulp Stone.
“Ossie has better things to do now, bel.”
“I mean we now have war and global pollution of the environment.”
“Things aren’t shaping up so well on this planet of the apes!”
“Well, local wars among the chimps don’t do the harm our wars do.”
“True, and they don’t pollute the cybersphere!”
“Right, Fred, look what happened to television!”
“What happened?”
“It was captured by advertising.”
“What’s wrong with that, bel? We had free shows all those years.”
“We didn’t have to pay for the shows, which meant we didn’t have much say about quality.”
“Bel, unpopular shows didn’t last long.”
“Well, some popular shows were pretty dreadful, in my opinion.”
“We must be careful, bel. I mean the system was basically democratic, giving the majority of viewers what they want.”
“Yes, the Nielsen ratings assured that.”
“I guess that’s true, in a way, at least.”
“So much for educational television, bel.”
“So much indeed, it sounds rather boring to a lot of people. Besides it got a government subsidy.”
“Macadamia called it liberal propaganda.”
“I think he has a point, Fred, but I am sorry he had Congress defund it.”
“Well, their Liberal bias is factually persuasive rather than rhetorical.
“You mean repeating the party line?”
“Unfortunately, they often end up repeating Liberal themes which leaves them accused of bias.”
“That’s it Fred, when it comes to persuasion, the facts are often unimportant.”
“Evangelical TV has been very successful.”
“Religion as entertainment, Fred!”
“No subsidies there!”
Ossi is barking furiously through the fence, where two kids on bikes are screaming as they ride in circles up and down a long driveway. We Walk over to quiet him, but he runs back to digging under the Tulp Stone.
“That stone holds a mystery for him.”
“Yes, it is probably a rodent.”
“It is also his entertainment. He doesn’t have to hunt to eat so, he does it for fun.”
“I think it is just instinctive.”
“Perhaps so, but it is hard not to feel Ossi is enjoying himself.”
“It is, or are we just projecting ourselves on to him?”
“Oh! we are.”
“So, what else kept you from going over with Steve?”
“A sense that I have no chores!”
“Have you hired a maid?”
“No, I am gradually changing my attitude.”
“As in vacuuming or leaf raking?”
“Well, Steve does all the vacuuming and I polish the hardware.”
“Okay.”
“Everything I do to maintain our way of life is part of our way of life.”
“But of course!”
“So, there is no reason not to enjoy it all.”
“Well, aren’t there somethings that just aren’t fun?”
“There were and that is what I am trying change, so that being here is my whole existence.”
“Bel, isn’t that rather limiting?”
“Think of William Blake, “Auguries of Innocence.”
“I would if I could remember it. The idea is certainly familiar.”
The first part is the most well-known.’
“To see a world in a grain of sand
And a heaven in a wildflower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour.”
“Yes, that sounds familiar.”
“It goes on in couplets, innocent and kind of child-like.”
“There is a good deal there, though.”
“Sure, it’s a nature poem and also a vision.”
“A vision of what?”
“Of us fully integrated into nature. He sensed that people are estranged and alienated from nature, both within themselves and in the world that brought us into existence.”
“So bel, are you are finding greater unity in your life here.”
“That’s the idea and I am exploring the experience by changing my attitude.”
