A dear friend of mine who is a fabulous artist, Brian Popp, is moving out of state.  Because I love his art (as does Adorable Guy), I asked him if he would be interested in a trade.  No hard feelings, I told him, if he wasn’t.  To my joy, he said yes.  Then he said, “I’d love to have the energy exchange with you.”

Right.

I had forgotten that an energy exchange is exactly what takes place when we sell art.  We artists exchange our energy, our vision, our creativity and a little bit of our soul for another person’s energy, whether that energy is expressed in their art, as with Brian, or in their cold hard cash, which they expended their energy to obtain.

“Energy exchange”.  It has such a nice ring to it, doesn’t it? 

If you are not familiar with Maira Kalman, whose writings and art are often posted in BrainPickings.org, you're missing out.  Her wry, slightly sideways look at life is always a joy and a perspective changer. This weekend I read her book "And the Pursuit of Happiness".   She's hysterical.  Her take on our government and founding fathers is seriously fun.  For example, she went to the Library of Congress and touched the bible that Abraham Lincoln and Barack Obama both swore their oath on.  Here is what she says:

And a woman named Renata asked "Why on the Bible?  Why not on the Constitution?"  And I think that is a very good question.  But now we are taking a short break from questioning.  Right now we are opting for naiveté."

I often feel like opting for naiveté.  

Perhaps I'll opt for naiveté today.  I won't ask hard, unanswerable questions.  Instead, I'll simply go on with my life as best I can.  Some days that's all you can do.