priorhouse blog

Hello Readers – it is time to join in with the short fiction challenge What Pegman Saw.

This week Pegman walked through Córdoba, Argentina and I brought him to MUSEUM EMILIO CARAFFA.

I decided to continue with my small therapy group from Friday Fictioneers (here).

The same five people are now at the museum – applying new coping skills (or maybe trying to) while giving their take on Sucari’s piece below:

Group Therapy – Session Two (Fiction word count: 150)

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Enlightened One: First thought was, “It’s stupid.” Putting that thought on trial: Defense was I’m not into abstracts. Prosecution was “stupid” cannot apply because this assemblage was cleverly constructed. Verdict is still expanding my overall outlook rather than quickly judging.

 

Mister Mad:

The red circle is a person robbed. And, he’s fu – um, he’s coping. LEARNING but still feels stinging pokes of loss.

 

Mr. C:

Sucari’s phenolic resin circle is tight. The wood grain on the base could align better.

 

Miss R:

        It’s not bad….

         (long pause)    Who’s next?

Mindful One:

My turn? ….. Perhaps the circle is someone under pressure? Each rod, pointing out in uneven increments, shows imbalance yet supported release. If we get rattled from stressors – our problems get “all” of us. So we mindfully calm to choose our response. Develop new habits….

 Counselor: Well done everyone. Now let’s meet the artist, then finish our meeting at Hotel Cordoba.

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To enjoy other short fiction stories inspired by the What Pegman Saw prompt or to submit your own 150-word story, go here.

 

Backstory:

I did not plan on taking Pegman to an art show, but after comment chatting with Amy M earlier this week, I decided to see what Trip Advisor had for Cordoba, which led to me to the museums and Sucari’s work felt fresh. I think his older work had golden metal theme (see collage below – maybe from the 1980’s) whereas his more recent art (which was on display at this museum recently) has a red and black/gray metal theme.

I also decided to continue with our therapy group because of a few comments about the last post – and hopefully the connection was clear.

Shall I elaborate a little more?

Why not.

Group Details:

Our enlightened one felt that “putting trials on thought” was life changing and used that to critique Sucari’s piece.

Mister mad is less angry than he was in session two and was even able to not swear (no f-bomb); although he still admits he stings from being robbed. 

Mr. C is this realist; a dry kind of person who sees with  aerial perspective and is possibly heavy left-brained. He is not sharing too much personal info but is very analytical.

Miss R is still reserved and a bit withdrawn verbally. However, even though she doesn’t share a lot – and she likes to police the group (in Session Two she asked if they could please lose the “f” word). Miss R is a sponge for learning coping skills and she will take away a lot from these meetings. Her astute counselor knows this and allows each group member to share in different amounts. The counselor also tries to let them feel stretched at the right times. 

Mindful One is practicing the art of being mindful as they respond to the art. We cannot see the mindfulness here as much as we could in Session two, but would like to add quick review of mindful behavior. It basically just involves not being overly reactive or overwhelmed by stressors. Mindful living involves learning how to respond to problems and crisis with strength and even though we feel and can hurt- we choose to not be rattled – we use “effective, resilient, low-cost responses to seemingly intransigent problems.” 

I was inspired to continue with this fifth person (Mindful One) in group therapy because of a snippet from a show I heard on the radio last week. I did not get the name, but they were interviewing someone who shared that after years of practice they had reached a nice level of not freaking out over stressors. They gave the example of when their house burned down – at Christmastime – and how they had to stay at a hotel – and during that time they were disturbed – but not crushed.

Their major point was that if they fell apart and freaked out over the loss – the fire would have doubly won. First, the fire would have taken their possessions and then if they were super upset – the fire would have also zapped essence, energy, strength and maybe even suppressed immunity.

So in a mindful lifestyle – response to problems takes a higher – calmer – level because humans with minds can reason and we can learn to change thinking and control actions.

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In closing, here is a collage of Sucari’s art (and his fb page is here)

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