I set up today... it was rainy cold, grey-spring. I was their to be mindful and yeah hoping for a crazy sale. I have had them before. I was on the other side...
So, not so long ago I was sitting in a cantina eating not so good fried food and looking out at this cool, rainy dreamy beautiful plaza en frente de una basilica. It was funny because for a moment I forget where I was... I was on the other side.
So, I set up today to be mindful. The reality is that I do this thing...this setting up and breaking down for a living. It is weird when I tell some folk this. I can see in there eyes they are waiting for the punch line. The answer to "What do you 'really' do for a living". This way of thinking about being a professional artists/crafts person, that is to say yo gano mi pan de vivir en esta manera, is just as hard for folk to believe here in the States as it is in France or Mexico. The 'looks' given by some people when I let loose with this fact of my life are sorta sad.
Sometimes setting up in the kind of weather I call 'entertaining' can be quite meditative. You breath deep to ignore, the wind, you exhale through the gusts, you focus on...to cool down in the heat, you find a kinda stillness in the cold. It's peaceful, calming and tres tres dur. You find that people want to come over and feel sorry for you. What the...sympathy no... a sale yes. Folk don't really wanna buy from people they perceive as poor or pitiful. So, one has to act like one is having a 'good time'. Child- the masks we wear aux marches du monde.
Where is this?
Basilica de....
What does it mean to be...on the other side in a market. It can mean that you are the customer, the artist, maker, vendor or just someone en passage. There is this luxury of being in a difficult situation when you don't have to be. Cause' I remember when I did not have a choice and am grateful to be on the other side.
witnessing,
Sonda
