reasons to love John Cage (some rules for students and teachers)

i took my French final this afternoon, which marks the (un)official close of my semester. i still have to submit the grades for my courses, but since Art Basel has descended once more, that task will have to wait until after the weekend.

but this is beside the point.

the point is that the end of each semester brings its own period of reflection – what it means to teach, what it means to learn, what it means to be engaged in the ritual of creating knowledge. for whatever reason, i stumbled across this morsel of wisdom as i was sifting through the bookmarks folder of my web browser. it's attributed to John Cage, and since Merce Cunningham Dance Company is giving one of their final performances tonight in Miami, it seems especially appropriate to pay homage to one of the artists who helped make the Company what it –

(let us observe
a moment of:

the tense begins to shift;
present to past, from is to...

was.

)

john cage: some rules for students and teachers

RULE ONE: Find a place you trust, and then try trusting it for awhile.

RULE TWO: General duties of a student - pull everything out of your teacher; pull everything out of your fellow students.

RULE THREE: General duties of a teacher - pull everything out of your students.

RULE FOUR: Consider everything an experiment.

RULE FIVE: be self-disciplined - this means finding someone wise or smart and choosing to follow them. To be disciplined is to follow in a good way. To be self-disciplined is to follow in a better way.

RULE SIX: Nothing is a mistake. There's no win and no fail, there's only make.

RULE SEVEN: The only rule is work. If you work it will lead to something. It's the people who do all of the work all of the time who eventually catch on to things.

RULE EIGHT: Don't try to create and analyze at the same time. They're different processes.

RULE NINE: Be happy whenever you can manage it. Enjoy yourself. It's lighter than you think.

RULE TEN: "We're breaking all the rules. Even our own rules. And how do we do that? By leaving plenty of room for X quantities." (John Cage)

HINTS: Always be around. Come or go to everything. Always go to classes. Read anything you can get your hands on. Look at movies carefully, often. Save everything - it might come in handy later.