The Arena in the NEWS (For Creative Tuesdays)

The latest Creative Tuesday's challenge is upon us.  This time around the theme is truly NEWSworthy.  Such a theme as news, is so open to varieties of interpretation, I just can't wait to see all the responses that are brought together.

For my piece, I originally intended to draw an old style radio tower.  Before the advent of the internet and all the strands of modern media, we had television.  Yet, before television, there was radio.  One could easily go back further and further, eventually settling on scratches into cave walls.  But, as I was drawing the towers, I went blank, kind of in a zone, and the picture, and all it's lines morphed into something different.

It was here that I remembered a story.  While I can't recall the exact details, it told the tale of millions and millions of dollars were invested in the construction of a new stadium.  The taxpayers were on the hook for the vast majority of the funding.  They didn't have a professional sports team, yet felt they were in line.  In fact the inside information gave them belief, hope that they would be awarded with the bid.  So the town, in all their joy and happiness, decided to put their chances over the top, to construct this beautiful stadium, the best the world had ever seen.

Someplace midway through the process however, many negatives appeared.  First there was an overall, nationwide, depression of economy, which saw the materials needed to complete the project jump up in price dramatically.  Anytime a bid takes place, research is conducted, as to logistics, which include, to a major extent, the pricing of those things necessary for the project.  Well, with the economic blight that persisted, prices shot up dramatically, and the project ran out of money.

But the politicians were not afraid, as they had a great number of privatized backers that had indicated previously that they would help if the situation arose.  Many of these individuals, despite making the promises they had made, had to back out for the huge hits their companies and portfolios had taken.  But still, there were so many, the politicians were not afraid.  They knew that they would get the funding.

Everything changed however, when the professional sports leagues to which they were seeking bids, changed their tunes.  One decided that due to the economy, expansion was not a responsible endeavor.  Another decided to do the same.  The others decided to go with different cities.  So now, today, this city has this shell of what would've been the most impressive stadium ever.  It has since become a black eye upon the public, a reminder of how priorities can easily get diverted by the promise of fame and attention.

So, in a situation such as this, Who, who is to blame?

Fresh Starts?

From a literal standpoint, fresh starts and new beginnings do not, nor cannot exist.  Everything you had previously experienced, all the things you’ve done, can be forgotten, yet never expunged.  The journey is never over, there can only be chapters and tracks.  Yet with brand new words upon untarnished page, each syllable commencing was forged from some other time.  All knowledge you’ve acquired, all languages you’ve learned, all the contextual applications and the transposition that’s occurred, each of these and all of them, will forever lure you’re mind back to infancy again.  In such times of happenstance, perhaps through rolling blackouts, dreams or simply glimmer lasting mere seconds, counted by hand but never reaching thumb, a connection occurs, linking the person you are now, or the one you are trying to become, with the abandoned persona you’ve left, in search of another one.

All shapes have lines, whether straight or curved.  Some hang open, without a second touching it’s ends.  Others bend and twist again and again, abutting other lines and more.  Simple lines dictate nothing more than what a line appears in form.  Yet when two lines meet, perhaps with an angle between, slightly touching at endpoints, only to expand the distance as horizons wend, together they create something larger than what they were as ones.  If four are scattered about the floor, a mess could be seen or possibilities to explore.  Bend the rigidness or a line, a round shape it turns out to be.  In this new format it can enter spaces previously reserved for two or three.  Connect to another of its kind, a circle it may be seen.  But in the end there’s only one, the line it used to be, laying dormant, making plots and ploys subconsciously, affecting the shape you see that’s made.

And so, like the circle, we return to beginnings.  While change is always admirable and innovative design quite essential, the past cannot be simply forgotten or buried as it’s weight will return at some point later, reminding you who you used to be.  So fresh cannot be concrete, as at someplace, the past forms the basis for all you’ve built upon and the strength of which, is the place where all futures call its present home.