Methods for Seeing the Edge with Fresh Eyes

Method 1: Draw it.

I brought pencils and paper and sat in two different places. This slowed me down, gave me a sense of the lines of the place, the pace of the place. I saw the neighborhood as beautiful scenery with as much interest as an alley in Amalfi, Italy or a canal in Amsterdam.

Method 2: Bring a kid along.

I brought my son Emmett along with me. He is 8 years old. When he is with me I see the world differently. I see it even more like an 8 year-old-than he does. What I mean is that I see it more like we think of 8-year-olds seeing things than he does. He actually worries more than I do, gets restless more and finds all of this a little less fascinating than I do. But with him, everything is more wonderous to me.

This is something we found in the window of a building. Birds had gotten trapped between this plywood sign and the glass window and died there.

Emmett was quite upset about this ossuary, this avian death-trap and he set about plotting how we could seal up the building to stop more birds from dying this terrible death. I suggested that he write down the name of the realtor listed on the sign on the building. He wrote down her name and phone number.

In the next few days we will contact her and perhaps we will retrieve the skeletons and work to identify them and also perhaps utilize the skeletons in an artwork.

Oh, another thing: I ran into Pamela McFarland, a resident and a graphic designer who was enjoying the cool and sunny afternoon by reading outside with iced coffee. She was sitting in front of the mural at Kristi Duckworth's studio. She told me a bunch about the neighborhood. It occurred to me that it would be a good thing for some or all of us to attend the next meeting of the Edge Neighborhood Association. I said that I would share this blog with her and with Pinkney Herbert and ask Pinkney to let us know when the next meeting of the neighborhood association would be taking place.