This week I read the essay 'Total Eclipse' by Annie Dillard. The first words were, "It has been like dying" she elaborates, describing the same event as slipping, falling, and sliding slowly without control. Her description feels panicked. I find it striking that this description which she finds akin to death is far more like life. Many people slide through life living without intention, watching as time falls away, living a life like sliding down a mountain pass. Death, even the nearness of it is like slamming on the breaks. The reality of death is the clarity to see life, to love life. Wondering if you will wake up in the morning makes you treasure the day as a gift when you do. I am not afraid to die. I have been fairly close. There are steps when you are going downhill, panic, pain, struggle, and fight; this is life, this is living. Then it gets quiet. That is the best way to describe it. You go from being unable to get comfortable, squirming with the agony of it all, to stillness. The pain dies away, you don't move, not an inch, not a finger. You breathe, slow. You look. You are tired, it would be so easy to close your eyes. But you have people to love, and a God to live for, not just die to see. To go to school, to walk without getting tired, to wake up, to see, to hear, to feel good, even to feel bad, simply to feel, what a gift. Inspiration Gordon Parks photographic work has been another inspiration this week. Parks captured images that illuminated the daily life of African Americans during the civil rights movement. These powerful images of their life and humanity had a profound effect on others. I am inspired by this use of art as activism. https://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/beta/theme/KALyWEH0ykiDIA Another source of inspiration this week was an editorial by Google Arts & Culture, 10 Fascinating Letters worth Reading. The article includes letters written by Martha Washington, Nelson Mandela, and Elenor Rosevelt among others. It is the humanization of these elevated figures that captured me. https://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/beta/theme/gALCXglnIoY4IQ A quote by Mother Teresa captured me this week, although admittedly I am always captured by anything she said.However, this quote in particular seems to apply so fittingly to the production of art. It is easy for me to create art out of a desire for praise. But it is the work created out of love and humility that means the most and leaves me wanting to create more and love more. "Humility is the mother of all virtues; purity, charity and obedience. it is in being humble that our love becomes real, devoted and ardent. If you are humble nothing will touch you, neither praise nor disgrace, because you know what you are. If you are blamed you will not be discouraged. if they call you a saint you will not put yourself on a pedestal." - Saint Mother Teresa This quote is a challenge to create and act out of humility and love. Work in progress...
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