Skip to main content

The focal point

   

       Thomas Moran, a fantastic painter and my favorite, has a running theme in his art: a single focal point of light. In most of his paintings, there is a scene of crashing waves, either on themselves or a rocky crag of sorts. The waves are always dark and foreboding, and present a sense of inevitable or impending death.
       But, where the horizon meets the ocean there is always a focal point of light. I heard it once said that a good painter always puts their darkest colour next to the brightest to accentuate both. The light lends credence to the dark and vice versa. So Moran does in his art. He blends perfectly the harsh blacks, grays, and blues with the bright whites, yellows, and oranges. And he creates beauty.
       So it is in life. This week, today, two people left this earth. It seems that when we slowly gain back our ground from the few moments before that shifted our paradigm, we experience the shattering again. A week or so ago, I was with my best friend and we were talking about death. I simply said, "I hate death." Her response blew me away: "It's just beginning." And she was right. At 29, everyone that I have known or grown up with or is part of my family will die. 
       So, why do I talk about Moran and death? Because of these two souls that left the darkness of the crashing waves for the subtle pastel of the sky. They left this delirious earth for the peace of heaven. They experienced in one moment a perfect Moran painting. The dark against the light. The hopeless against the hope. The imperfect for the perfect. They became immortal like Moran.
       And as we think of them and praise them and remember all the good that happened in our lives because of them we experience a little more of the focal point of life. See, I don't think that life is about the pain or the struggle or the shit we watch about on the news. No, it is about that little glimmer of hope that we find in the small things. It is the uncomplicated joy =) It is about the focal point. That's what this life is about, not the the other. 
       I did not know these two people well, but I met them and smiled because of them...Their families are my family. And I am honored to be apart of the bigger family of which they were apart. 
       RIP: Steven Rojo
               Angie's mom

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tiger must stay in your backpack...

   I'm not that parent. The one who gloats too much, and shows off all the pictures. The parent who relays every detail of their kid to let others know how incredible I think they are. Perhaps it is a flaw. Who knows. And I also pride myself in not being a helicopter parent. I teach and let go. I discipline and let go.    And I thought I would be ready for this: first day of Pre-K. I have been very positive and uplifting and have wanted my son to be extra ready to go to school. We have talked about it for months! I am ready... Or so I thought.  This morning, as white boy was leaving to take them to daycare, he said to Owen, "You can't take Tiger to school tomorrow or he will have to stay in your backpack, so do you want to take him to daycare today?" I thought little of it, but as Owen threw him down on the ground and turned to head out the door, my throat hitched. "Are you sure you don't want to take him today?" He said no. It was a sense of finality.  ...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Sacred Requiem

  He handed me the hymnal and asked me if I was ready...if I could do this. To be honest, I had no idea what I was doing. I had never planned a funeral, and even if I had imagined planning one it sure wasn't this early in life and it sure wasn't for my only brother, my only sibling. At 25, I felt like a little child getting left behind in a sea of strangers. I was terrified.   2 days prior, my heart stopped beating. 2 short days before this, my peaceful world collided with the dark. And now I had to prepare for the world to say goodbye to greatness. The tree fell in the woods and the world shook with its sudden end. And we, as the collective, needed to imagine that very tree as the beautiful piece of woodwork it now was and bow to it's new exulted shape.   I wasn't sure how to plan a requiem. But, it had been placed in my hands and I wanted to give him the best I could. He deserved it. He deserved life...to live...to breathe still and chase every dream he thought into...
Post a Comment
Read more

"To be or not to be..."

   In the famous lines from Act 3 Scene 1 in Shakespeare's Hamlet, we hear the contemplation of suicide: "To be or not to be...that is the question." And what a powerful question that is.    All over social media we have been privy to the not so secret decision made by Brittany Maynard to end her life. And what a horrifically tragic story this is. So what is the right attitude or stance we should have concerning this beauitful, young girl who decided to take her life?    I remember several years back I watched a documentary on Dr. Kevorkian aka Dr. Death. It was a look into his methods of assisted suicide. And as I watched this video I couldn't help but mentally stand behind the actions of this doctor. And up until the point he made it a political issue, I supported him. I still do.    Now, whether you think one way or another, let me say one thing...I don't think suicide is God's perfect will for our lives, but His perfect will wasn't for Brit...
Post a Comment
Read more