Vincent
“For
my part, I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me
dream.”
Vincent
Van Gogh
I am
going to see the Van Gogh exhibition today. I can hardly wait. What courage it
took for that man to paint and to follow his own vision in what and how he
painted. In his quotes there is one about fishermen who know how treacherous
the sea is and how terrible the storm, but they still do not find that sufficient
reason to stay ashore. He was such a man, I think.
Courage
is a valuable asset for anyone to possess in life. Van Gogh said, “What
would life be like if we had no courage to attempt anything?” Very dull, no
doubt. But to me, courage is not about scaling a thousand-foot rock face, or
sky-diving, or climbing Mt. Everest. Those are just plain nutty to me—audacious
temptation of fate. Courage is about getting up every day and facing the world
as yourself. Not as the person society insists on your being but knowing
yourself sufficiently well to stand in your own authenticity—regardless of cultural
rejection. That’s what Van Gogh did.
Van
Gogh was a prolific painter, thank God, since he died at the tender age of 37
from a gunshot wound. Despite rejection of his art, and of him as a human being
because of his mental illness, Van Gogh persisted. People with disabilities face
these same challenges every single day, and here we are 200 years later, supposedly
“woke,” and mental illness is still taboo, and still treated differently from other
physical illnesses. We humans are slow to catch on.
Instead
of caving to society's demand for “pretty pictures,” Van Gogh said, “I
dream of painting and then I paint my dream.” He was true to himself, and
guided by love, which he believed to be the greatest source of creativity. “What
is done in love is done well.” Amen, Vincent, amen.
In
the Spirit,
Jane
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