Fresh Take: Some Rules For Students & Teachers

Leave a comment

John Cage: Some Rules for Students and Teachers

RULE ONE:  Find a place you trust,  and then,  try trusting it for awhile.

RULE TWO: (General Duties as a Student)
Pull everything out of your teacher.
Pull everything out of your fellow students.

RULE THREE: (General Duties as a Teacher)
Pull everything out of your students.

RULE FOUR: Consider everything an experiment.

RULE FIVE: Be Self Disciplined. 
This means finding someone wise or smart and choosing to follow them.
To be disciplined is to follow in a good way.
To be self-disciplined is to follow in a better way.

RULE SIX: Follow the leader. Nothing is a mistake.
There is no win and no fail. There is only make.

RULE SEVEN: The only rule is work. If you work it will lead to something.
It is the people who do all of the work all of the time who eventually catch on to things.
You can fool the fans–but not the players.

RULE EIGHT: Do not try to create and analyze at the same time.
The are different processes.

RULE NINE: Be happy whenever you can manage it.
Enjoy yourself. It is lighter than you think.

RULE TEN: We are breaking all the rules.
Even our own rules, and how do we do that?
By leaving plenty of room for “X” quantities.

HELPFUL HINTS:
Always Be Around.
Come or go to everything.
Always go to classes.
Read everything you can get your hands on.
Look at movies carefully and often.
SAVE EVERYTHING. It may come in handy later.

Photo: My Photos
Words: John Cage via

Fresh Take: Because Trying On Different Selves Is The Work Of Our Lives

Leave a comment

1982

1987

1992

1997

2002

2007

2012

“The ground beneath our feet is always sinking.

The person we become is never the person we wanted to be — there are compromises and scars, failures and cowardice. Always choices. Always temptations. The only thing we can do sometimes is close our eyes and go in what seems to be the best direction … but we may not know until long after we’ve passed the turning.

We have to open our hearts … and that can be excruciating.

We have to see the face of God in everyone … and that work is hard and humbling, but it burnishes our souls to beauty.

Remember this: In the end, every turning is the right turning, and life always brings us to where we need to be.

Love yourself as you are and where you are. Love others that way, too.”

- Words: Laurie Creasy from ”Who We Become” via Cowbird
- Photos: Photographic Memories via Twisted Sifter: Five teenagers posed for a photo at Copco Lake in 1982 that started a tradition spanning 30 years. The men plan to keep posing for the photo every five years until they die. From left to right: John Wardlaw, Mark Rumer, Dallas Burney, John Molony and John Dickson.