(#181) CHORI (CHILDRENS HOSPITAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE) http://www.kidsfirst.org/research.html:
Edition of 2820 of which 125 copies are signed 1-125, 26 copies are signed A-Z as artists proofs; X are signed as dedication copies, and three sets are signed as progressives.
March 28, 1999 17-1/2 x 24 10 colors
Client: Childrens Hospital Oakland Research Institute (Julie Brink 428-3340)
Dedication copies: Julie Brink
1-125: Artists own use
A-Z: Artists own use
Progressives: One set to CHORI; one set to Julie Brink; one set to Saint Hieronymus Press
What do I care? I have engendered no hostages to fortune, no prisoners of time unclocked. I bestow no burden of deoxyribonucleic acid, as heavy as its name is long, to tote for generations yet unborn into the far and indecipherable future. What did posterity ever do for me? Why should I not lead a gay and carefree life, heedless of consequence, regardless of cost? When I die, the world dies with me.
Though, for some odd reason I do care. I worry about those little eggs and sperms ununited, those embryo citizens of a dismal future without the stars. What can I do to make it better for them? I dont know. It seems that everything we try to do to make things better ends up making things worse, and that the preferable course if we do not know whats going on is to do nothing.
But, thats not an option. So we do the best we can, and maybe its improving in some ways and worsening in others; but we have no vantage from which to view the big picture, and perhaps there is none. So, posterity, heres to you. Ill do my best, however clumsy it may be, to leave you a world thats inhabitable if nothing else, and in return I ask you to honor my shade and forgive my mistakes. Shake, its a deal.
He that hath wife and children hath given hostages to fortune; for they are impediments to great enterprises, either of virtue or mischief. Francis Bacon (1561 - 1626), Essays, Of Marriage and Single Life (1625).