the imposter made pots that looked like his, but sold them at a fraction of the price. it was a long road leading to his studio, so, you had to pass the imposters shop. eventually some japanese art authority came to him and begged him to sign his work, or stamp it. he refused.

ultimately my favorite story about fame as a transmuting principal comes from a japanese potter. he became extremely famous, one of the best japanese potters of all time. he never signed his pieces so, as his fame grew, an imposter set up shop on the road leading to his studio

rilke said fame is like: there is a man building with stones in a lot - fame is the crowd that rushes in, scattering the stones, and making further building impossible. if life were an RPG, its odd to consider fame as its own statistic, cultivated independently of all the others

therefore fame as a concept exists completely separate from influence. it also exists separate from skill - easy to find someone skilled who is not famous. it also exists independent of power - many of the most powerful (or wealthy) are not famous. it's "its own thing", apart.

the guy who divided the new testament into numbered verses, thus allowing us say "romans 1:20", is probably one of the top ten most influential people to ever exist. virtually every single person in our civilization has seen with or engaged with his work. yet, he is not famous.

christmas, day four https://hell.twtr.plus/media/91069e345d91e7e13b3d588b2902636d04c53944f5ec045e168d1d279428bbef.file

this is probably my favorite christmas comic (1982). intentional or not, i enjoy that it can also be extended into a theological and historical metaphor. https://hell.twtr.plus/media/d9cfd2869a6e4e93b52c4c313fe9fe433c81b9d5348bdd3dd857874c9d2bc6d4.file

me: you can be whatever you want when you’re older, man: you could be a tailor, play football, whatever my son (4), whose parents are both artists: mom told me not to play football me: did she use the word concussion when she told you that son: yes

detour / plug for something that may interest “therapists, social workers, addiction counselors, clergy”: through my readings, and then because of necessity, i ended up discovering and then utilizing an alternative psychology practice called TIR (traumatic incident reduction). it falls under the domain of something called applied metapsychology. a guy i met does it, and is running a workshop for it - training people how to use TIR to help others resolve and deal with traumatic experiences. i wasn’t paid to plug this or anything, i just wanted to mention it as A) it really works, i’ve seen it (family member, etc), and B) he mentioned that he’s often given the course to pastors and clergy, as that class of person is often dealing directly with people who are suffering from previous traumatic experiences. if you read this far and are curious, it has nothing in common with talk therapy or what is called therapy - it’s based in a totally different model of the psyche, and has several central posits that differentiate it from that practice entirely. short note on myself: i mentioned my forays into alternate psychology elsewhere, but - my personal research had already become adjacent to psychology in a few ways. then, immediately after my daughter’s birth, my family basically had a Crazy Bad Situation(tm) that was very difficult for my wife and was negatively affecting her in an extreme way on a day to day basis. i knew i had to do something, but i also have a very high level of the general skepticism of established psychology and mainstream “therapy” that you generally see on this site. after some digging, i found this, tried it myself (obviously before handing my wife off to someone), and it basically resolved my wife’s issue entirely. so, like i said, wasn’t paid to plug this but i thought i’d mention it once or twice. the guy i know involved in it said the workshop on using this technique to help others is applicable to anyone, but especially “therapists, social workers, addiction counselors, clergy”. he told me that he’s often around workshops with clergy or pastors from war-torn places who obviously deal with people who have serious recent traumatic experiences. i thought that was interesting. as metapsychology itself (the large umbrella of what TIR is based in) sets out from a totally different psychological model (as opposed to conscious, subconscious, etc.) i have taken a private interest in it - it has very interesting implications for a variety of my main fields, though im not associated with any group or person. here’s a few screenshots from the main site, and the flyer for the workshop (i redacted a few details for reasons that should be obvious if you’re on twitter). that’s it. hope your christmas is going well. https://hell.twtr.plus/media/6643be4fc5f47d1e27bbfe51e17ea2c7db28d90d16906744279d076de655ff34.file https://hell.twtr.plus/media/6c511e61f24ad8868f2ad5f65929430223a618fdaf9a0cb495793df292b05774.file https://hell.twtr.plus/media/98510b7ffff534e1080d1d402627f2ad2e8f9dafcc8a19aa2573892021752284.file https://hell.twtr.plus/media/f5905278affc04745dcbf41ca1f7a2fb7c7d686a00364fd7ae4e5126f3757899.file

RT @FoeLusty@twitter.com: My daughter won't be able to savour the verse quite yet, but she'll enjoy the pictures meantime. Thank you, @owen cyclops https://hell.twtr.plus/media/c700232e26632ae8dc9b234ef27739df0c71e5594be4d5a262dcdcb4a1474c5e.file