A little girl was handing out programs to each person who came through the door at the Firemen’s Exempt yesterday. I put it in my pocket. The place was packed and we were immediately involved in conversation. We were there to celebrate the life of Sue Schepp who passed away too soon. How often do potters get silicosis? One study revealed that among a tested group of 106 pottery workers, 55% had at least some stage of Silicosis. Sue had her own kiln and made beautiful dishes for everyone we know.
We met Chris in the late seventies. He was working at Midtown Printing on the second floor of Midtown Plaza behind Midtown Records and we were just starting to play out as Hi-Techs. Chris printed our posters at first and later designed them. He created many of the covers for The Refrigerator. Chris and Sue were married in this same place thirty five years ago. We were there. It was a perfect match of yin and yang. Sue was a Buddhist and grew up in a commune. John Cage and M.C. Escher were family friends.
Chris and Sue’s daughter, Celeste opened the tributes and hours later there was so much more to say. Sue was “a loving energy.” I read the program this morning and it stopped me in my tracks.
“Is it possible to just be here
and be nothing special at all?
With no need to be special,
no need to stand apart,
to just be comfortable with how one is?
What a peaceful world it would be
if people could just feel comfortable
being nothing at all.
To be no one special,
with no need to out-maneuver,
to strategize, to protect or defend, to resist
which all comes out of upholding
some image of being something.
It really seems so simple
and yet people continue to strive endlessly. …
In actuality, we are so much more
than these thoughts about ourselves.
We are life,
we are this life force that runs through all life,
this energy of aliveness,
which gets constricted with all these thoughts
about ourselves being this enclosed thing. …
As human beings,
when all this conditioned thought
or image-making activity slows down
or is not the dominating force, there is this vulnerability,
a loving energy,
a warmth, that can be felt.
And that may be the only profound impact
that we can have in the world,
when there is no striving, achieving, upholding.
In that, there is true love and compassion
for how one is,
here and everywhere.”
– Susan Schepp, Springwater, 2019
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