A note from Peter about this blog … one year into it.
Charlieandpeter Blog: Year Two
In the
first year of this blog site; “charlieandpeter”, I presented a series of short
stories I wrote about a remarkable man I knew, Charles Beck. He was an artist
and a teacher. I too am an artist and an
art teacher, and Charlie hired me as a novice art teacher in his art department
in a New York City high school in the 1960’s. We soon became friends. He was my closest friend for ten years, when
he died. The stories told in this blog have been of Charlie’s way of viewing the world, which opened
up a world that, it turns out, was much larger and better than the one I had been
living in -- before meeting Charlie. He caused the same thing to happen to
everybody fortunate enough to meet him -- under any circumstances. I have come to
believe Charlie was one of the “Just” -- a handful of humans in each generation,
who, unbeknownst even to themselves, are possessed with such wisdom and decency,
that the Master of the Universe, stays the day of Reckoning, thus wiping out
yet another experiment gone wrong. All these stories are on file on this blog
site and are easily accessed below.
As our new "charlieandpeter" blog year begins, the posts above this one continues with Charlie's way of being in the
world as well as now my own hopefully and enduringly perspectives on art, on
teaching and of a certain slant on life inflected by Charlie. Some are stories, some essays addressed to
artists and teachers, some poetry addressed to who knows who. I hope you find
the reading rewarding. ~ Peter London