Tag Archives: painting

Traveling

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I’ve been traveling lately to find warmer climes, to escape the cold of March in the north. To do this I spend long hours driving over a number of days through predominantly bland ecru nothingness, dry and uninteresting small, distressed nearly abandoned towns I find hard to believe anyone would willingly occupy.

In another time, at a younger age my imagination would conjure another reality in these places and allow there may be an underlying beauty to be found if I looked hard enough, where a living could be made, life could thrive in a sort of parallel universe.

I no longer entertain such thoughts.

Michel de Montaigne’s Enlightened Views

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In 16th Century Europe, Luther’s Reformation provided a popular alternative for a population aggrieved by the excessive taxation imposed by the Roman church. The schism produced opposing factions that felt the need to impose doctrinal absolutes on their respective believers in order to reinforce professed Christian legitimacy. Heretics were found, declared and burned and in France the protestant Huguenots were slaughtered by ruling Catholics.

In response to the unchristian-like actions the French philosopher Michel de Montaigne offered some enlightening insights. He suggested if one took any one of his firmly held beliefs and then took time to consider the opposite view openly and thoroughly, he might very well change his opinion.

Unfortunately, his skepticism of rigid dogmatic belief did little to defer the unsettled populations, who ignored reason and continued to each passionately pursue their preferred narratives.
Some things never change.

The Value of Opposition (Imagined or Otherwise)

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Does one’s mental acuity require an antagonist or are there just some of us who don’t function well without an oppositional push? Having a foil against which I can expend my energies allows for perceived successes, wins, against adversity and will produce a sense of euphoria (short-lived though it will be), that feeds the desire to continue to seek out opposition.

The commonly held desire for peaceful coexistence, the idea of a friction-free Utopia would send many of us into an undesirable state of ennui, although time to rest up between bouts will be welcome.

Narratives

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I’ve been thinking, lately, about pictorial narratives, wondering how personal experience might affect interpretations if the imagery contains a bit of ambiguity. Since we all have different life experiences, subliminal issues, it’s reasonable to assume pictorial interpretations will vary from one of us to the next.

And, if pictorial narratives are offered without explanation, one must assume a bit of mystery will present itself, which is, I think a good thing; it keeps the viewer pondering.

Scandanavian Angst

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I’ve been reading about a time before electricity and central heating when Scandanavian people existed much closer to their natural environment, when enduring the harshness of cold, ice and snow could be mind-bending. I guess living in the northern climes during long winter months provided reason enough to explain the psychological darkness, existential angst that invaded the minds of inhabitants.

The indigenous Sami, nomadic reindeer herders, their sole economic existence dependent on the health of their herds, were required to constantly move through the harsh winters as lichen fields were depleted and new grazing areas found. It’s no wonders the culture of the area produced narratives with few happy endings, stories of protagonists arriving finally at the realization of existential aloneness.

Edvard Munch: The Dead Mother and the child

A Reasoning Mind

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I’ve been reading and thinking about the idea of a reasoned existence. Most all of us, more or less, reason our way through our problems weighing possible solutions and making determinations about which options have the greatest potential for success. We do this in a thoughtful way using our powers of reasoning; the decisions made on the basis of factual evidence.

At the same time most of us harbor beliefs for which there is no factual evidence. Our fertile imaginations allow our intuitions to take us into the realm of the imaginary. Which is not to imply the only knowable truths are dependent on hard facts. Richness of existence depends on our entertaining the ephemeral, ineffable. Caution, though, must be taken to carefully sift through the counter-factual in order we assure ourselves good choices are made.

The Zen of Pickleball

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Having taken up the sport of pickleball fairly recently I now find myself deeply engaged, contemplating daily the intricacies of the game: the interplay between its physical demands and cerebral requirements. I’m increasingly seeing the game as metaphor, mirroring the travails highs and lows of daily existence. The elation of a well-played point paralleling an enjoyable evening with friends or the sinking feeling of being beaten down the line the equivalent of an upcoming dental appointment.

In the interests of coming away from an outing on a high rather than a low I find myself thinking about, preparing, anticipating what to expect in order to execute proper fundamentals, increasing my chances of success. Even so, mental preparation doesn’t always produce desired results. Sometimes I lose focus, or my timing is off, or the matchups are unfavorable, and I leave the courts in low spirits.

I wonder if the real issue here is that I don’t have anything truly important to think about.

Plato, Aristotle and Medieval Christianity

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I’ve been reading about the influence Plato and Aristotle had on the medieval Christian church. The thoughts of these two Greek philosophers were responsible for doctrinal controversy within the church hierarchy.

Plato, whose concept of ‘Ideal Forms’, on which the flawed material world was derivative provided some in the early church insight to see Plato as foretelling the existence of the Christian God, a God beyond rational understanding, a God unknowable before the Christ, to be accepted and revered through faithful observance. Thomas Aquinas, empiricist, thoughtful inquirer, found Aristotle’s sensate investigations proof of an ordered, natural world made that way by an omnipotent God. The contradictory thinking produced on the one hand the necessity of ‘blind faith’, the faithful encouraged to accept the mystery that is God, and, on the other an enquiring laity whose faith and rational understanding was based on knowledge.

The philosophical controversy still exists to this day but at the time paled in comparison to the power struggles and corruption within the medieval church.

An Uneasy Exchange

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I visited with a childhood friend recently. We have known each other since elementary school and over the years have shared numerous interests, developed common sensibilities. Things change with time and experience, of course, and my friend and I have found ourselves philosophically polarized.

He has been, for quite some time now, a committed Evangelical harboring the benevolent belief Christian faith will bring serenity and peace not to mention a heavenly afterlife. I on the other hand, remain philosophically open-ended believing a pluralistic world view will produce the greatest likelihood mankind will be able to come together, to unite in a common empathy, reduce sectarian conflicts and direct us toward a peaceful future existence.

I though, unlike my friend, harbor the anxieties of real time, am unable to adapt to the closed system of religious faith, even though the vision of a sunny after-life is pretty attractive.

Brain Fog

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I’ve been reading, lately, that an increasing number of people are having a serious problem thinking. The complaint, made primarily by young adults, is of an inability to mentally focus and make decisions. In explanation, researchers point to the prevalence of ‘long covid’ as being a primary culprit causing what suffers refer to as ‘brain fog’: a condition affecting their ability to function at work.

I find myself wondering as I observe these Gen-Zers and Millennials, ubiquitous smart phones in hand while in airpod oblivion, what the true cause of their ‘brain fog’ might be.