An experiment in progress:
Zappy Donuts
Death Benefits:
"Has this world been so kind to you that you should leave with regret? There are better things ahead than any we leave behind." - C.S. Lewis ********************** One of the clearest and dearest human beings I have run across this lifetime without a doubt. All Glories to God! "In shallow men the fish of little thoughts cause much commotion. In oceanic minds the whales of inspiration make hardly a ruffle." This observation from the Hindu scriptures is not without discerning humor. (AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A YOGI by SRI PARAMHANSA YOGANANDA, Ch. 12) *********************** "Christianity has been made so completely devoid of character that there is really nothing to persecute. The chief trouble with Christians, therefore, is that no one wants to kill them any more!" Kierkegaard ever the comic. *********************** Even as Philosophy is not so much Truth known but Truth loved, so is Art not so much Beauty achieved but Beauty loved. Fr. Vincent McNabb ************************* Regarding art: "the world is full of admirable craftsmen but so few practical dreamers" Man Ray *************************** If our glass is half empty maybe that will motivate us to at least be on the lookout for water but if it is half full maybe we can put off looking for water till another day, which is more likely to end up with a full glass? So yes, I would prefer to be in the "motivated" to fill our glass camp than the "complacent" we are good enough for now camp. -tp The little house on Van Gogh Lane. |
What was Vincent Van Gogh thinking? Well here is sample from a letter to Emile Bernard that I find absolutely astounding. *********************** "For look: people used to think that the earth was flat. That was true, and still is today, of, say, Paris to Asnières. But that does not alter the fact that science demonstrates that the earth as a whole is round, something nobody nowadays disputes. For all that, people still persist in thinking that life is flat and runs from birth to death. But life, too, is probably round, and much greater in scope and possibilities than the hemisphere we now know. Future generations will probably be able to enlighten us on this very interesting subject, and then science itself - with all due respect - may reach conclusions that are more or less in keeping with Christ's sayings about the other half of our life. Be that as it may, the fact is that we are painters in real life, and it's a matter of continuing to draw breath while one has breath left in one's body. Christ alone, of all the philosophers, magicians, etc., has affirmed eternal life as the most important certainty, the infinity of time, the futility of death, the necessity and purpose of serenity and devotion. He lived serenely, as an artist greater than all other artists, scorning marble and clay and paint, working in the living flesh. In other words, this peerless artist, scarcely conceivable with the blunt instrument of our modern, nervous and obtuse brains, made neither statues nor paintings nor books. He maintained in no uncertain terms that he made...living men, immortals. That is a profoundly serious matter, the more so as it is the truth. |
Nor did this great artist write books. Christian literature as a whole would undoubtedly have aroused his ire, and includes very few literary works beyond Luke's Gospel or Paul's epistles - so simple in their austere and militant form - that would have found favour in his eyes.
This great artist - Christ - although he did not concern himself with writing books on ideas (sensations), felt considerably less disdain for the spoken word, and for parables in particular (what a sower, what a harvest, what a fig tree! etc.) And who would dare claim that he lied on that day when, scornfully predicting the destruction of Rome, he said, "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away." These spoken words - which, like a prodigal grand seigneur, he did not even deign to write down - form one of the pinnacles, the highest pinnacle, reached by art, which at that point becomes creative force, pure creative force." http://www.webexhibits.org/van... |