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The Mechanist on Not Being an Artist

I live my life trying to create Art and Beauty in all conditions and I also do my best to recognize and celebrate Art and Beauty in others — even if they do not recognize those gifts in themselves.  I know a sandwich maker can be an Artist.  It’s all about intention and the cut of the knife and the slice of the bread and, of course, choosing just the right condiments.  While an Artist can create a sandwich, a sandwich is never really a piece of Art because Art — in its essence — must have the capacity to endure.  Sandwiches, by their very nature, are crafted to be temporary and dissolved. Albert Einstein was an Artist as was Alexander the Great.

Imagine my surprise the other day when a new online friend sent me a gift — something he’d made with tools and machines he’d created in a faraway land — and I wrote him an email to thank him and celebrate his talent and my “You’re an Artist!” compliment was wholly rebuffed.  I’d unwittingly insulted The Mechanist by identifying his keen aesthetic.

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Never Dog Ear a Library Book!

For most of my school life, books were on loan for the year and then returned back to the school. At the beginning of the school year, we were given the books we needed and inscribed our names onto a bookplate which had been pasted into the book when it was originally purchased by the school. I was always very careful with the books I got from the school — it was not my property to do with as I wanted.

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The Art of the Inhuman Touch

If you’re feeling sad or wacky or off-center, do you need the human touch of a psychiatrist in your brain? Or would you be just as happy telling your internal ills to robot a for fixing as if you were a car in need of a mechanic?

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Be Your Own Brain Surgeon

With the crazy skyrocketing cost of healthcare in America one is always on the search for ways to save a penny or two to get well and feel healthy. I’m sure some of us have even wondered about the cost-to-benefit ratio of going to a surgeon over preparing yourself for life under your own scalpel. We don’t recommend the self-surgery path, but Anatomical.com provides a glimpse into the wonder of the science of the body and while you won’t find your brain on drugs there, you will find your brain on a pedestal:

Anatomical

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