AESTHETIC REALISM FOUNDATION 141 Greene Street  New York, NY 10012

July 2008           

Dear Friend,

    In this turbulent year with so much worry in our nation about the economy, healthcare, security, the well-being of our planet, it's more urgent than ever that people be able to meet the knowledge, the ethics, the good will in the education of Aesthetic Realism. It provides the understanding of, and answers to, the largest matters affecting every person and our nation as a whole.

     For instance, Aesthetic Realism explains what interferes with learning, with love and marriage, with the happiness every person desires. And it explains—and is the knowledge that can end at last—the racism that has so much hurt humanity.

   That's why I'm asking for your financial contribution to support the vital work of the not-for-profit Aesthetic Realism Foundation.

     The mission statement enclosed describes that work—cultural and immensely kind and practical—which takes place at the Foundation and, through our outreach programs, at youth and senior centers, libraries, universities, and more, throughout the New York metropolitan area and in other parts of the nation.

    Aesthetic Realism was founded in 1941 by the philosopher, poet, and critic Eli Siegel. He described it as “the study of how to like oneself through liking the way one sees the world, and liking, as much as can be, the world itself.”

    And Aesthetic Realism explains that the great opponent to our desire to respect the world is contempt, the desire to get an “addition to self through the lessening of something else.” Contempt can be as ordinary as not listening to someone in a conversation—feeling that what goes on in us and what we have to say is more important than what we might hear from someone else.

     Contempt is the source of cruelty of every kind, including ethnic prejudice. It's the cause of economic injustice, and the financial turmoil the country is suffering from. And contempt is the cause of war.

   The accompanying page of reprints includes several of many articles and letters which have appeared in the press in the last year about how Aesthetic Realism has the understanding needed to deal with crucially important subjects. They're about matters from racism to the economy and healthcare, to violence in our schools.

     As a person who has tested Aesthetic Realism and benefited from it tremendously, and as a writer who worked for many years in newsrooms at WCBS Radio and the ABC radio network, I consider it the knowledge people and nations need most!

A Person Has to Do with the Whole World

    Eli Siegel is the philosopher who explained that what makes a work of art good is what we need for our lives. He stated: “All beauty is a making one of opposites, and the making one of opposites is what we are going after in ourselves.”

     This principle is true, and gives largeness and dignity to the self of every person. Through it, what every individual hopes for, and what's urgent for our nation, occurs: people become kinder; they have a true self-respect, based on justice.

     For example, before I met Aesthetic Realism I felt, as most people do, that what went on inside me was very different from—and much better than—the world outside of me. I was a sports writer and an ardent fan, but away from the excitement of sporting events I saw life deeply as dull, especially other people. I was very affable, but I had a painful feeling of aloofness and emptiness. In other words, I was like millions of people who act at ease and chipper.

   I didn't know I was being inaccurate about the central opposites in my life: self and world. I'm very happy to quote a little here from a class in which Mr. Siegel showed me that the separation I had tried to make between these opposites was contemptuous and really impossible: my opinion of myself depended on how fair I was to the outside world.

     He asked me, “Do you hope people be as good as they can be?” I hadn't; you can't when you want to feel superior to them. And he asked, “Do you like to encourage people? Do you think if you failed to encourage people you would feel bad?” I had no idea that what I truly wanted was to encourage people, and that I disliked myself because instead I'd made myself apart from them. Mr. Siegel suggested that I say: “I am Michael Palmer. I am also how I'm related to all things.”

    In my study with Mr. Siegel for over six years, I saw a man of unmatched scholarship, who was always honest and unwaveringly kind. Learning how I was related to all things and people was the beginning of a new life for me.

     This study took in so much more than my specialization in sports, and also had me see sports with greater love and meaning.

     In Aesthetic Realism classes, first with Mr. Siegel, now with Ellen Reiss, whom I respect so much, I've learned to care for literature, the visual arts, and music—and to have a genuine care for and interest in people! And it's because of Aesthetic Realism that my marriage to Lynette Abel is so happy.

Happening Now!

    This past year the work of the Aesthetic Realism Foundation has continued vibrantly and grown.

There are the great consultations, given to individuals both at the Foundation and by telephone across the nation and abroad. In them, people learn what they're able to learn nowhere else: really to understand themselves!

There's the biweekly international journal The Right of Aesthetic Realism to Be Known, edited by Class Chairman Ellen Reiss. Her commentaries—with their powerful, exact understanding of world events and of men, women, and children—have educated people, including press people, across America.

There are the cutting-edge seminars on, for instance, “Our Own Good Opinion—How Can We Have It?,” “Through the Aesthetic Realism Teaching Method, Knowledge Opposes Anger & Students Learn!,” “What Does It Mean to Be a Good Husband?”

There are the thrilling, culturally magnificent special events by the Aesthetic Realism Theatre Company. And there is our important and expanding outreach program.

     To put it simply: the world needs Aesthetic Realism. People everywhere deserve to meet it. Your tax-deductible contribution can help this come to be. No investment you can make is more practical, and more a source of pride!

	Sincerely,
	Michael Palmer   Aesthetic Realism Associate
Contributions are tax deductible