Man cannot remake himself without suffering,
for he is both the marble and the sculptor.
Alexis Carrel
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Hello Aland, have a warm and sunny day.
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"And a little child shall lead them."
It is said of Michelangelo that he claimed to see the statue within the block of marble and just chiseled away everything else until he revealed the pure work of art inside. I think it may be the other way around for the real human being.
It is heartbreaking to see a child's hopes broken and it's expectations closed up. Why? Because the child is still at the point of innocence about the world. People will say "Well, that's all part of growing up. That's life. C'est la vie."
But who really knows what la vie is? There are more books than you and all your friends and neighbors can read in a lifetime trying to explain it. Biologists with their diastole and systole can only go so far and simple phrases like Life is God don't hold one's interest for very long.
Life seems to be a conglomeration of things that keep getting added on from the moment we are conscious of our first hope being dashed, until we are surrounded and made up of all the ills, fears, angers, hatreds, failures and regrets as well as the thrills, successes and realizations of our days. But what did we lose along the way in this process of "growing up"? How many of us remember the joy of our first cupcake or our first balloon?
If there is a paradise to be found it may be that it can only be gained by remaking ourselves in the image of the pure, innocent being we were made to be, with hammer and chisel in hand to chip away, in sorrow and hard effort, all the accumulated dross that makes us think we are wise and adult, until we finally reach the pure, innocent self inside.
DB - Vagabond Journeys
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SPRING QUESTION
NASA has planned to send a two man mission on an 18 month trip to the planet Mars. It would take 6 months for the astronauts to get there and after 6 months of exploration another 6 months to return.
Should they do it and why, and if not, why not?
dbdacoba@aol.com
2 answers so far
I eagerly await your answer.
DB
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Showing posts with label Michelangelo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Michelangelo. Show all posts
Monday, March 28, 2011
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
The Contrapuntal Mind
Ideas control the world.
President James Garfield
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I once took a photograph of a stream, a clear slowly moving stream. It was a fascinating picture because there were a few autumn levees floating on the stream, reflected in it was the branch of a tree overhead still holding on to some of its leaves and some rocks on the bottom of the stream. It was a bright sunny day, the branch, the leaves and the rocks were well lit by the sun. The picture was showing three realities at once, the reflection of the branches, the gently rippling water supporting the floating leaves and the rocks underneath. All the great ideas that control the world exist on several levels.
Near where I took the picture there was a meadow with a very friendly horse. The horse came up to the fence to greet me and I took its picture also. I don't know what happened to those pictures. The got lost somewhere along the vagabond trail.
I remember that horse. It was easy to recognize it as a horse. It looked like a horse. It looked they way horses look. It was a horse. It was also a friendly horse. It behaved in a way only that horse could. It came to greet me. Other horses could greet me but they wouldn't be that horse. That horse could greet other people and probably did, but then it wouldn't be greeting me. I appreciated that animal who looked like a horse because it was a horse and a horse who was friendly toward me, because it was a friendly horse. But those experiences of appreciation enabled me to see and appreciate something else and that was the idea of horse. That horse is similar to a zebra. But it's not a zebra. A zebra is a different idea. I was beginning to see the ideas of natures creations. The ideas that control the world have several levels.
If you are fortunate enough to view a statue by Michelangelo you are seeing marble, Marble is a fascinating, beautiful stone and something to admire. You are also seeing a work of art, a figure well designed, beautifully formed and rendered for your pleasure in the medium of marble. And what you are also seeing if you are really observant is the idea of that marble statue, the idea of art. The thing in itself, its vitality and the idea of its existence. The idea of a statue which encompasses and explains all three. The idea of a horse. The idea of a stream. All the ideas that rule exist on several levels.
I am always urging people to listen to music they way I do. (Aw, here he goes again.) Music, as much as poetry, is an art form of ideas. One must look into the stream not just at it. One should listen into the music, not just to it. If you listen into a Bach cantata, when you hear a solo, you will also hear along with the song two or three other events happening in the orchestra. They are each individual expressions of the idea of music. It's called "counterpoint" and it's one of the ideas that rule the world.
DB - The Vagabond
**********************
WINTER QUESTION
(This is not a contest)
What was the most significant event that happened in 2010?
dbdacoba@aol.com
Only 6 responses so far
I await your answer.
DB
******************************
President James Garfield
**************************
I once took a photograph of a stream, a clear slowly moving stream. It was a fascinating picture because there were a few autumn levees floating on the stream, reflected in it was the branch of a tree overhead still holding on to some of its leaves and some rocks on the bottom of the stream. It was a bright sunny day, the branch, the leaves and the rocks were well lit by the sun. The picture was showing three realities at once, the reflection of the branches, the gently rippling water supporting the floating leaves and the rocks underneath. All the great ideas that control the world exist on several levels.
Near where I took the picture there was a meadow with a very friendly horse. The horse came up to the fence to greet me and I took its picture also. I don't know what happened to those pictures. The got lost somewhere along the vagabond trail.
I remember that horse. It was easy to recognize it as a horse. It looked like a horse. It looked they way horses look. It was a horse. It was also a friendly horse. It behaved in a way only that horse could. It came to greet me. Other horses could greet me but they wouldn't be that horse. That horse could greet other people and probably did, but then it wouldn't be greeting me. I appreciated that animal who looked like a horse because it was a horse and a horse who was friendly toward me, because it was a friendly horse. But those experiences of appreciation enabled me to see and appreciate something else and that was the idea of horse. That horse is similar to a zebra. But it's not a zebra. A zebra is a different idea. I was beginning to see the ideas of natures creations. The ideas that control the world have several levels.
If you are fortunate enough to view a statue by Michelangelo you are seeing marble, Marble is a fascinating, beautiful stone and something to admire. You are also seeing a work of art, a figure well designed, beautifully formed and rendered for your pleasure in the medium of marble. And what you are also seeing if you are really observant is the idea of that marble statue, the idea of art. The thing in itself, its vitality and the idea of its existence. The idea of a statue which encompasses and explains all three. The idea of a horse. The idea of a stream. All the ideas that rule exist on several levels.
I am always urging people to listen to music they way I do. (Aw, here he goes again.) Music, as much as poetry, is an art form of ideas. One must look into the stream not just at it. One should listen into the music, not just to it. If you listen into a Bach cantata, when you hear a solo, you will also hear along with the song two or three other events happening in the orchestra. They are each individual expressions of the idea of music. It's called "counterpoint" and it's one of the ideas that rule the world.
DB - The Vagabond
**********************
WINTER QUESTION
(This is not a contest)
What was the most significant event that happened in 2010?
dbdacoba@aol.com
Only 6 responses so far
I await your answer.
DB
******************************
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
What Do You Want?
I hope that I may always desire more than I can accomplish.
Michelangelo
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Yesterday I sat in a hard wooden chair and twisted myself around in order to take photographs for the first time on a digital camera of my art works so that I could put them on the computer. When I finished and stood up I couldn't walk. For the rest of the day I was painfully bent over. But no matter how I feel today, whether I can walk or not, I have to go to the market or I'll run out of toilet paper (pardon me,
"bathroom tissue"). Now if you don't think that's funny, you've got no sense of humor.
A good hot bath would probably help the back, but I don't have a bath tub. I have a stall shower. There are people who have bath tubs who never use them. They just stand in them and take showers. What a waste! Come take my stall shower and leave me your bath tub. What? Real men don't take baths? Bull.
When I began the day I didn't have a file on the computer of my paintings but, in spite of the sacrifice, now I do. I completed the most recent one a few days ago. Except for signing it I'm finished with it. Naturally I still worry over it as you might worry over a child, hoping they turn out all right. But the painting is not finished with me. Every time I do one I want it to be better than the last one. I'm learning how to paint by painting, the same way I learned acting and broadcasting. There seems to be no other way in my life.
One of the biggest questions of all time is how do we survive? Considering that we are born unable to take care of ourselves, dependant on people with varying degrees of wisdom to teach us how to live, once we make it through the roller coaster of growing up, then considering the limitations, the financial flops, crippling illnesses, emotional whip lashes and natural disasters, how do we keep going, and why?
The answer is: we stay alive because we want to . We desire to live. And that means we desire to experience, to learn, to accomplish things, to fulfill ourselves and to do better than we've done. The imaginations of an active mind, the heart's hopes, the lover's binding strengths transcend all those limitations beyond distances no one has ever measured.
I always hope that things will get better and that I will accomplish more. They don't and I don't. But so what? I will not stop wanting.
DB - The Vagabond
************************
SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest.)
In your opinion what is the most amazing thing that could happen during this decade? Make it as outrageous as you want but keep it within the realm of what you consider a possibility.
14 responses so far.
Answers will be published the first day of Summer.
Thank you.
dbdacoba@aol.com
DB - The Vagabond
*******************
Michelangelo
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Yesterday I sat in a hard wooden chair and twisted myself around in order to take photographs for the first time on a digital camera of my art works so that I could put them on the computer. When I finished and stood up I couldn't walk. For the rest of the day I was painfully bent over. But no matter how I feel today, whether I can walk or not, I have to go to the market or I'll run out of toilet paper (pardon me,
"bathroom tissue"). Now if you don't think that's funny, you've got no sense of humor.
A good hot bath would probably help the back, but I don't have a bath tub. I have a stall shower. There are people who have bath tubs who never use them. They just stand in them and take showers. What a waste! Come take my stall shower and leave me your bath tub. What? Real men don't take baths? Bull.
When I began the day I didn't have a file on the computer of my paintings but, in spite of the sacrifice, now I do. I completed the most recent one a few days ago. Except for signing it I'm finished with it. Naturally I still worry over it as you might worry over a child, hoping they turn out all right. But the painting is not finished with me. Every time I do one I want it to be better than the last one. I'm learning how to paint by painting, the same way I learned acting and broadcasting. There seems to be no other way in my life.
One of the biggest questions of all time is how do we survive? Considering that we are born unable to take care of ourselves, dependant on people with varying degrees of wisdom to teach us how to live, once we make it through the roller coaster of growing up, then considering the limitations, the financial flops, crippling illnesses, emotional whip lashes and natural disasters, how do we keep going, and why?
The answer is: we stay alive because we want to . We desire to live. And that means we desire to experience, to learn, to accomplish things, to fulfill ourselves and to do better than we've done. The imaginations of an active mind, the heart's hopes, the lover's binding strengths transcend all those limitations beyond distances no one has ever measured.
I always hope that things will get better and that I will accomplish more. They don't and I don't. But so what? I will not stop wanting.
DB - The Vagabond
************************
SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest.)
In your opinion what is the most amazing thing that could happen during this decade? Make it as outrageous as you want but keep it within the realm of what you consider a possibility.
14 responses so far.
Answers will be published the first day of Summer.
Thank you.
dbdacoba@aol.com
DB - The Vagabond
*******************
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