It’s good to bring you another Sculpture of the Month today! I skipped July because I had cataract surgery followed by a flurry of local sightseeing adventures with visiting family.
But I am back for August!
In my last Sculpture of the Month – catch up here – I discussed a four-phase, repeating pattern of American governance theorized by Neil Howe & William Strauss. The sculpture I’ve picked to focus on today continues to evoke their ideas of cyclical change.
Witnessing the Birth of a new Paradigm
his is another piece from my 2005 Rosecrans Series about how to get past war. In Witnessing the Birth of a New Paradigm, we see an entity emerging from a broken eggshell. A bird person perched on the lip of the shell appears to sing in celebration and blessing, while Koala-like animals opposite seem both shaken and stunned.
In his recent book, The Fourth Turning Is Here, Neil Howe describes the next-to-last stage of their theorized cycle (called the “unraveling”) as a time when people cooperate less to solve problems and instead separate off into groups who cannot see each other’s viewpoints at all.
Remind you of anything?
However, Howe predicts that when an unexpected crisis threatens us so badly that we simply have to pull together again, a new and inspired social compact will emerge. And according to the theory, the culture only “turns” when a new generation comes into leadership.
Since so many of our current leaders are Baby Boomers born just after WWII, the appearance of JD Vance and Kamala Harris as presidential contenders marks a hopeful change! (If elected, millennial JD Vance would tie Nixon as the youngest VP in U.S. history.)
Witnessing the Birth of a New Paradigm depicts the shift that happens when all appears lost at the end of an unraveling. Then, something new & disturbing emerges, but instead of destroying us, it inspires us to creativity and cooperation, so we can reshape the world to meet the callings of the time.
