1.
Where Elephants Drink — a painting by Marty Smith
From the Community
The soaring bird sees children leap into water where elephants drink.
In Marty’s article (👇🏽), he talks about ‘illuminating’ his ‘verse’ which I read in two ways.
First, it made me think of the relationship between language and images. I don’t know about the cliché of a ‘picture speaks a thousand words’… but I do know that art touches a deep part of our humanity. The part of us that’s simultaneously intimate and yet unknowable. The part of us that’s connected with all things - each other, the earth, and the skies. The part of us that we may call spirit.
Language can do that too… poetry, verses, and sometimes even just the way someone speaks and listens to us. But this language isn’t just ordinary words. They’re words that are deliberate. Intentional. Thoughtful.
Both art and verse stand whole on their own, yet bringing them together creates a kind of ‘illumination’ - a different view of a new whole.
Secondly, Marty’s post had me thinking about the etymology of the word ‘universe’.
Uni: One, whole, all.
Verse: from ‘versus’ meaning ‘a turning’. A version, a turning into.
“The” universe may hold “the” truth of all things… yet our own worlds and experiences are our own. Our truth, our verse - a whole unto themselves, yet part of something bigger.
2.
Let There Always Be Light — a poem by Rebecca Elson
Let there Always Be Light
For this we go out dark nights, searching
For the dimmest stars,
For signs of unseen things:
To weigh us down
To stop the universe
From rushing on and on
Into its own beyond
Till it exhausts itself and lies down cold,
Its last star going out.
Whatever they turn out to be,
Let there be swarms of them,
Enough for immortality,
Always a star where we can warm ourselves.
Let there be enough to bring back
From its own edges,
To bring us all so close that we ignite
The bright spark of resurrection.
- Rebecca Elson
I don’t know a great deal about Rebecca Elson other than that she was an astronomer.
This reflection on “illumination” also reminded me of this poem, and how we look to the night sky to find our light, our spirit, our place in the universe.
3.
On light — a quote from Joseph Campbell
From the Library
What am I? Am I the bulb that carries the light, or am I the light of which the bulb is a vehicle?
— Jospeh Campbell
🕛 TODAY IS MONDAY AGAIN 🕓
So I lied to you last week. I said the schedule of posting (Sundays) will return to normal. Perhaps next week’s post will be on human fallibility.
I’m sure it’s no surprise, but I loved the illuminated verse. It reminded me of ancient illuminated texts made by early Christian monks.
thank you very much.
your commentary is insightful .