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 Put one foot in front of the other

And soon you’ll be walking cross the floor
Put one foot in front of the other
And soon you’ll be walking out the door
...
If you want to change your direction
If your time of life is at hand
Well don’t be the rule be the exception
A good way to start is to stand

(Santa Claus Is Coming to Town)

I tried to post a link to that music video, but my attempts failed. It was a tragedy, and since I'm quite tired, I might have cried a little. But just a little. Really.

So, why did I post a Christmas song? Because Santa is AWESOME!!!...and because it is a fitting reminder of evolution. "One foot in front of the other" is a simple message, but it does express the idea that life is constantly in motion. Perhaps this motion is effortless, like an adult breezing across a room, or perhaps the movement is more deliberate, like a baby trying out her first steps.

In one example of deliberate motion, our guest artist mentioned that she had chosen the order of her series' artwork in order to reflect her idea of human evolution. I admired how neatly her artwork flowed from one theme to the next, from biological evolution to cultural, but I felt in some way, cheated. Why hadn't she presented the images in the order that she created them? To do so would be the best representation of her thought processes. By forcing evolution in her artwork, the artist lied to us. She forced us as viewers to create a construct that hadn't existed in the first place. 

Speaking of invented constructs, Lauren Olamina, from the Parable of the Sower, created her Earthseed religion. Although Earthseed evolved from Buddhism, Taoism, and Lauren's own experiences, I felt that it was a dead end. Lauren evolved during her escape north, as did her faith and her community of believers, but I always had the sense that Earthseed could not be taken seriously. My rejection of Earthseed might be a tragedy, since belief was Lauren's most valuable possession, but I could not accept a religion that was completely made up.  

And an interesting article I came across today:

opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/17/morals-without-god/