Welcome to Pizzaonia! Reflections from a different perspective --- Diverti Mento, John Frank Giovanni, Frank John Franco, Vera V. Veronica and all of the Pizza digogo DiVinci family invite you to join us - We discuss and share ideas that are relevant to our new emerging world. http://giovanniandfranco.com A division of the Pizzaonian Newsertainment Network
We live in a time when the concept of faith has lost its luster. Faith by today’s rules is consigned often to the unsophisticated. As a result, when someone declares a belief or activity as “a matter of faith” it is immediately suspect.
This presents a major problem. If faith is suspect, than most of our assumptions must also be suspect since so much of what we believe is based on faith-like assumptions.
A major assumption we make everyday is the world, as we know it, will continue to exist. This is an assumption based on faith.
The odds may be with us, but nonetheless, we don’t know what’s going to happen in the next minute and must assume we will still be here.
This obvious assumption should give us pause. Our arrogant supposition regarding the stability of life keeps us from changing many things that need changing.
The notion there will be a tomorrow may give us hope, but how many important things never get done because this assumed hope is part of our belief system. This implicit hope is the “mother” of all procrastination.
Be careful – the next time you find faith suspect - make sure you are not living most of your life based on assumptions rooted in faith.
(C)copyright Pizzaonian Art Institute, Abe Staction,curator Image: Maturity waiting to happen, by Pizzaonious
It may be a long way to Tipari, but it is a longer road still to maturity. Maturity is the long-awaited condition that we hope age and experience will create - unfortunately, not always so.
In the American experience, maturity is perpetually delayed by entertainment – a process that keeps you from confronting yourself. The business of having to grow an economy cannot have its potential customers sitting around contemplating life. Economies require infusions of cash for new products that somehow always seem to resemble the old products they replace- without this infusion they die.
There is some good in this process. It brings some innovation and increases the so-called standard of living. And, if it does none of these things, it always creates the illusion that growing is good and necessary for our well-being.
The distinction between need and want is the problem that marketers face everyday. If you are lucky, or smart enough, to have a product that people need, you do not have to work as hard as the rest of us.
Most of us have to create the illusion that what people want is also what they need. That is the little kept secret: Making something no one needs, and making that something that everyone wants is the gateway to success. We call this successful marketing. Without it, we would all be in big trouble.
As time goes by actual products run their course. The natural progression of continually making the same look like the new runs out – there are only so many products. Thus was born the service industry. Now we have always had necessary services, but as an industry, we matured. There are only so many necessary services. The rest we call entertainment. In the United States we also call it politics.
The service industry creates distraction: works of art that only exist for the moment. This makes the artist, Christo, a prophet. He said, “Do you know that I don’t have any artworks that exist? They all go away when they’re finished.” Does anything better define the service industry?
Now even contemplation is a product. Create a culture where every waking moment is necessary to survive, and top it off with products that require constant reinventing. Nice work if you can get it.
And we wonder why maturity is a delayed process.
Brother Giovanni, reporting for Pizzaonian Newsertainment Network, Diverti Mento, director
Image courtesy of the Pizzaonian Art Institute, Abe Straction, Curator
When you are a nation of doers, critics have a place.They can offer an intelligent perspective that can be useful to the doers.However, when you become a nation of critics with the doers in the minority, you are on your way to oblivion.
We have reached the crisis point.Unless we encourage the creative energy that made this nation the dynamic world engine it was, we can look forward to a long dismal period of slow, national disintegration.
How could this have happened in the first place?It was easy.We created an elite. This elite set the standards for education, politics, justice, technology and the social mores that favored their continued rule.
They decided which schools our talented young people would attend. They set the standards of qualifications to merit entry into their hallowed halls.Those standards, of course, saddle broke all creative minds so they could serve as obedient managers for the system they were bred to serve.
So as a result, our financial and educational institutions, our courts and government are managed by people with the same “mind think” regardless of how bright or creative they were in the beginning.
We did have our bright shining moment.After World War Two, thousands of returning veterans came home and began their education.We created an army of intelligent educated workers and managers that carried us to a national greatness that surprised everyone.
We also created a nation of thinkers who were able to question things like they have never been questioned before.Out of the fifties we bred the sixties and we began to scrutinize all institutions and authority.
We created the mechanisms to eliminate poverty, bring quality education to everyone and to create a justice system that would have equal access as its priority.
And then a funny thing happened on the way to Utopia - we became satisfied with what we had become. The result: The national elections of 2016 - need I say more?
"sunset" from a photograph by Pizzaonian painter Ever Readi
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FROM: PIZZAONIAN NEWSERTAINMENT NETWORK (PNN)
Contact:Publicio Relationio at the PNN office of Public Relations at[email protected]
SUBJECT:Pizzaonians appoint first woman submarine captain
In a surprise announcement the Pizzaonian Office of Military Affairs said today that Eleanori Ramallboati was promoted to captain in the Pizzaonian submarine service.
This is the first woman submarine commander in Pizzaonian naval history and marks an historic occasion as another milestone in the Pizzaonian march to being the most progressive and liberal land to ever exist.
When asked how this was consistent with their no war policy, Defense Minister, Wei Havinoarmi, said “this is very consistent with our policy since we have no navy or submarines. It is very unlikely that we would use Captain Ramallboati’s promotion as an excuse to go to war.
After all, your Leonardo Di Vinci invented the submarine but never had to build one.I think we are consistent with that tradition.”
(C) copyright IMAGE: Pizzaonius addressing novitate monks on the need for small acts of kindness. All images from the Pizzaonian Art Institute collection, Abe Staction,curator
The most difficult part of the era we live in is to accept the fact that events have a life of their own and will play themselves out with little help from us. This may sound pessimistic to most, but this has been the way of events since we began our human journey on this mortal coil.
Human frailty and egos being what they are, we have a need to believe we can make a difference. If this makes life easier for you - continue to believe it, but always be aware this may well be an illusion.
If we have no effect on the big issues, what do we affect? For one, we can make positive changes to ourselves. Working on ourselves and changing for the better is something most of us take for granted. We usually presume in our insulated ego existences that someone else causes our problems. This is our folly when we do so.
The big issues play themselves out. Even the players in the big arena have little effect on outcomes. The redeeming feature in our American system is the system itself. It survives by allowing the powers to be to continue to exist, regardless of their own folly. Eventually, even if by default, this means creating an economy that allows all to live well.
This is not altruistic. Spreading the wealth allows the top to survive. When economic and political events become bad enough the process of renewal begins. It is the cycle of our economic, political and spiritual existence. It works repeatedly and has from the beginning.
What then can you do? For one, weed your own garden. Most of the good in this world is the combined small acts of good that create their own karma. This may not sound like much, but it is all you have.
So when you despair of the larger events of this world, do some small good around you. It does not have to be a big deal. Any small act of kindness will do. Then let go and enjoy the moment. You might be surprised at the result.
Defining your reality - For those still seeking their path
As the years go by you realize so much of your life is shaped by accidental events that require you to react to them, the notion of planning and shaping your life into something meaningful can become a non sequitur.
Cynical, pehaps, but if this is true, then what is left? The answer to the question is for a lifetime to reveal.
We hear so much of goals and how important they are to finding success.
Secretly, I sometimes think that much of our stress is grounded in chasing goals for which we have neither the inclination nor the aptitude. Many of us reject our natural aptitudes and the talents we have. We insist on becoming something else. Why? The question has perplexed me for years.
I suspect it starts with the early impressions we are all left with from our childhood. The desire for acceptance teaches most of us early on that the affirmation we need comes from fulfilling the wishes and needs of the prominent adults in our lives.
How your changing needs for affirmation affects who and what you are.
As we grow older the need for affirmation transfers to the adult institutions in our lives: our cultural values, our workplace, our church, our select group of friends - all influenced by the imprint within us that was shaped by the environment of our early years. By this time, the need for survival takes hold and our mental imprints are too grounded to change into what should have been.
Of course, all of this creates the filter by which we judge and view all the feelings and activities we experience in our journey to the end. This filter shapes our particular prejudices and perspectives, both individually and collectively. Primarily, because it is the subtle, but always present static that plays in the background of our thinking process.
Our need for affirmation numbs us into submission and deludes us with its virtuous resignation.
We grow so use to its presence, we ignore its power over us. However, we do so at our own peril.
There is a noted exception to this model. There are a few among us who see correctly and know what they do to survive is essentially meaningless to them other than providing a means to an end. They do not embellish, or try to justify their activities in “service for society” or other grandiose terms. They do what is necessary because it is necessary.
Simply meeting their responsibilities is a worthy goal unto itself.
A means to an end becomes their justification, and stoic acceptance of this fact creates its own type of begrudging affirmation - though not completely free, they may be the freest among us. And that is worth a great deal.
One of the most amazing events of the past twenty-five years is how Apple created worshippers instead of customers.
Steve Jobs, for all the other things he may have been, was a marketing genius who understood how to create a digital community, and how to mold that community into a cult concept. No matter how competent his replacement(s) may be - Apple can never be the same without him.
Many will object to the word “cult” but in its broadest sense, that is what the digital Apple community is.
Jobs became the messiah of the ubiquitous information age and intuitively understood how to set Apple products apart as the symbol of the new age that was dawning. The concept of symbol is important because understanding how to create a symbol and make it a totem of a new generation is what Jobs did. This was his genius.
Though it is veiled by the material age we live in you can see the same progression of the Apple experience in many spiritual and religious experiences from the beginning of time. They have existed through the ages and come to us through mythology and religion. Understanding what Jobs accomplished is a Jungian delight.
In a time when alienation abounds and when technology eliminates the one-on-one experience, the world was waiting for a way to unite the millions of alienated people. Jobs became that symbol of unification and Apple products became the “digital bread of life” that united Apple users, not only with Jobs, but also with each other.
Organized religion eat your heart out. Can you imagine a church where millions wait in line to join and are willing to pay hundreds of dollars to become part of the experience? Again, that is what Jobs did. He was truly one of the great minds of his age.
Brother Giovanni, for the Pizzaonian Newsertainment Network
The question should occur to us: Why Photography? With so many ways to express yourself today why choose the camera as your primary tool for creative expression.
For some, the answer comes quick and easy. The camera offers the dilettante an easy tool to use for personal expression with a minimum of preparation, and with today’s digital automation, the camera is easier to use than at any other time.
No question that the camera is ubiquitous and that photography is the people’s art form. The digital camera's automation performs many of the tasks that earlier photographers would spend several months, if not years, learning to master.
Digital images fill the air we breathe. Social media creates multiple platforms for photographers to share pictures. Never before have so many images been available for us to share.
With such easy access and availability, it begs the question: Why so few creative and exciting images that stir the soul and imagination.
Everyday we are exposed to well-crafted images that are at best clichés. They serve their purpose, and I am no way suggesting they should stop being produced. These images serve a very important purpose for those that produce them.
I am concerned about the lack of bold, new creative images that show photography to be more than a recording device.
Photography is at a crossroads since technology has changed how the medium is defined. What does the future hold and what will the new photographers see as their role?
In Pizzaonia intersecting triangles and light with open space symbolizes the presence of the Creator.
August 2016
Today in a one on one interview, former Supreme Pizzaonian, Brother Giovanni, explained why the “Golden Rule” no longer works and how Pizzaonians evolved to a more advanced culture by realizing this simple observation.
Brother Giovanni elaborated, "Do unto others as you would have then do unto you" is a concept that requires similarities in culture to be effective. As we know, it was rendered in a time when most world views were tribal and provincial. The Golden Rule requires a universal sense of a world community that probably never existed..
As the world expanded and grew bigger with each new discovery, and contrary to popular opinion, it became virtually impossible for people to keep up and to see beyond their tribal perspectives. Everyone’s moral compass went awry. How else do you explain how historically a group of people could be so loving with each other, and than go down the road and slaughter every man, woman and child in a competing village? And, I am not sure on a grander scale, this same question does not apply today.
When I portalized to the beta-world it became clear that Pizzaonians had evolved to an effective and more advanced interpretation of the Golden Rule. Since they are an ecumenical culture and accept all beliefs, and yes, including non belief, it became clear to avoid escalating conflicts they had to develop a way of respecting each other with a universal concept of charity and mutual respect.
Since they are a mercantile culture revolving around the making and selling of pizza, their elders came up with the inspired concept of "customer" as a sacred trust. Since then the Golden Rule for all of Pizzaonia is ‘do unto your customer as you would have your customer do unto you.’
The concept was accepted immediately by all. The concept of customer servicetranscended religious, ethnic and regional differences. As the concept evolved, they went further and extended the definition of “customer’ to include everyone, not just people you dealt with in business. So your customer became your friend, your family members, literally everyone. As a result, today we find ourselves with a society that has all the problems you have - but, unlike you, the moral mechanism to deal with and resolve all conflicts.”
Brother Giovanni
GiovanniandFranco.com is a division of the Pizzaonian Newsertainment Network, Diverti Mento, editor
An interesting thought occurred to me this morning. Nothing corrupts a process more than money. This is hardly a revelation, I’m sure, but sometimes we need to stop and think about it. Nowhere is this more obvious than in sports and show business.
Often when an aging star or athlete goes on beyond their time, we continue to enjoy them, not because they are still great, but because of what they were in their past. Our memory of their past greatness overshadows the present, and we continue to compulsively enjoy watching them perform.
It also occurred to me that this does not go unnoticed by the promoters - those people who make these talented individuals multi-million-dollar industries. As long as there’s a dollar to be sucked out of the public, they will continue to ply their wares and parade there stable of “over the hill stars" to an all too willing public - that is so desperate for shared community, they will throw their dollars at anything that allows them to be part of something bigger than themselves.
It is wonderful to see that unusual person – who was given the gift of rare talent, who knows when their time has passed and voluntarily chooses to get off the stage. I admire them because I can appreciate how difficult this must be for them. Part of the drive to stardom has got to be the public’s admiration and constant attention that you receive daily. This is a mighty elixir that I am sure is very hard to give up.
For this rare group that knows when to quit, it is not their past greatness that we admire. We admire them for what they are and continue to be in our memory - something special and uncommon - talent combined with dignity and grace.
For them, they will not let their promoters or money corrupt the process - and for that I am especially grateful.
