Flaming Hoops
S. Bowen commenting on Feet are Optional:
“In my youth, someone told me that life is a series of ‘flaming hoops’ — we all seemingly must jump through some to survive in society, but jumping through all of them may leave one with a life that’s sterile and not one’s own.”
And in the same place, John Bates:
“You know, it’s funny, but this discussion has stirred me to think about my days in my one photography class, at a tony prep school.
I loved that class. I loved exploring. I loved taking pictures. I even (god help me) loved the darkroom. We didn’t talk about rules. We talked about what we liked, and how to make good prints.
That was my one art class, ever. When I told my parents I was going to take Photography II, they got quiet. Then they said no. They seemed to think that being a photographer might not be the best career choice for me, and they seemed afraid that two art classes might be enough to contaminate me beyond repair.
It’s been twenty years. I still haven’t forgiven them.
Would it surprise you to know, Mike, that straight-A math students in high school rarely make good mathematicians? That once you pass the rote learning approach that is the prelude to real math, it is the rebels and the outcasts who excel?”
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