Dan's Papers - March 7, 2008

Dear Dan,
Art is knowing where to draw the line and when to cut it - and yours does, as usual, very well. (Moon, 2/29/08) When you saw the eclipse and sensed that you're on a giant sphere hurtling through space looking across at another doing the same thing, you're well on your way into abstract thinking.
It takes freedom of the mind. In this way, 40 years ago, I evolved an art form. As to why these bodies in the universe are all smooth and round? I say it's because they exist outside the confines of a frame (not suspended on a wire). To drive this point home, consider a bubble, or like sphere. How could you cut off the excess? No way - there's no waste on a sphere because it's the basic shape in nature.
Once I cut an elliptical shell in half and placed it on the wall. I wondered, why is it still curved? Then I create sculptured paintings, which project into our space to rise into positive and negative curvature from zero curvature - to escape flatland thinking.
We have the tools to sort out what happens in the immensities of outer space. On the other hand, the narrower focus of a poet may possibly make it easier to explain. I leave you with these thoughts...

The Young Moon Says...
I am your barren sister, sown in weakness raised in power - a place you cannot live, and forever, we are uneasy together.
I am the mute sphere like the dumb part of the mind, observed in the night sky reflecting sunlight in a calm.
I am there, even while you sleep, in full view you hesitate to recognize what happens to me.
I am a simple timepiece of all things that exist drawing you to behold an economy of movement in the firmament.
Assuring you that nothing exists in timelessness, even so - it is hard for you - to take it easy.

Dear Dan,
"Slow and Steady" was a riot, but, seriously, Sag Harbor's most effective asset is its dysfunctional government. Sometimes the results are comical, but we stand well "preserved" and the happiest people on the East End. Not doing anything works! We have discouraged and delayed speculative development, and the result is that Sag Harbor is a true mirror of its people, not a "new," and "improved" version brought to you by investors or narcissists. We have more architectural interest and a cultural integrity that is admired by all. I will credit our good fortune to Sag Harbor's inability to know how to respond to big, new ideas.
The Hamptons Dictionary defines local boards as "candy stores" "where 95% of variance applications are granted, more than a few out of fear of lawsuits based upon previously granted, precedent setting, decisions; rubber stamp(s); See 'Stop and Shop.'" I wouldn't agree with every Sag Harbor decision, but for a long time we have resisted the "candy store" mold.
The trap - or the secret, depending on your point of view - is that this is actually Wonderland. Let me give you an example. A developer came to town a few years ago with a "big" proposition that became subsumed into our governmental quicksand. In defeat, this is what he was heard to say:
"I'm going to lose my shirt! I made a mistake by thinking we'd go in there and say to the Boards 'we're going to spend millions and millions in your town and they would appreciate it. But they don't care! What do they know, anyway? They are just a bunch of plumbers and school teachers."
On the surface Mr. Big was arrogant and insulting. But how can you blame him, in the contemporary, lawyer-driven world, where money will beget lawsuit and lawsuit begets capitulation? His frustration was quite understandable, but the point is that he went away and nothing in the Harbor changed.
Our dysfunction has served us well, Dan, and I think I've made my point on that. What I am curious about, since I know you as a most astute observer of the Sag Harbor scene - as well as a life-long booster - why you think that "Sag Harbor Closed" sign wasn't intentional?