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10. FINAL REMARKS

The alpine herdsman subsisted at the edge of a rugged nature.  He stood strong against nature’s powers, demon’s challenges and time’s guises. He felt secure and in good hands within his Alp Magic, well protected by rituals.

Until with Modernism he lost his reason of being.  Like with Al Imfeld’s father who started out as a herding boy, became a farmer and a dairyman… and in old age - far removed from a deeper reason - worked in a parking lot collecting filthy lucre and directing drivers into parking spots.  And so he, and we, lost the magic; the magic that had left room for us to our perennially try to grasp “becoming, being, expiring.”

I find my own responses to superficial consumerism, to rituals devoid of meaning and to pompous behavior. Against the currents and floods of electronic media and the sensationalist press which overflow our interior world and submerge our living rooms and bedrooms under a thick muddy coat.

To place meaningful, directional signals for renewal and to continue to interact with the most worthless and minor of symbols have become a feasible way of life to me. There are too many normal people and too few who are off the beaten track. But then, normality, by definition, is measured in relation to abnormality.

It is worthwhile to open up to one’s own craziness, to listen into the depth and to reach up high, to express
impressions - and at the very least, to laugh more about one’s self than others do!

Ueli Dubs