Express Train of Thought

February 7

Snow carpets,coats,covers quietly

the air is quieter, settled, movement slows and in turn is noticed with an acuity not found i tropical climes.

Each color dances backgrounded as it is with white pure as the empty void of black in true space.

Eat, pray,love a book by Elizabeth Gilbert has me tranfixed with ideas:

“In a world of disorder and disaster and fraud sometimes only beauty can be trusted. Only artistic excellence is incorruptible. Pleasure cannot be bargained down….

“to devote yourself to the creation and enjoyment of beauty, then, can be a serious business” . 114

I am tansported several weeks backward in time to Rome. My first trip there. My meagre expectations flooded.

On a dark December morning i hiked up to the Borgese Gardens and i turn into the Villa Borgese Museum. WE had a two hour ticket purchased several days in advance as the museum was sold out. A ticket costing e 25 which roughly translates into $40. why is any museaum worht a 3 day wait and then you can only enter for 2 hours and be hustled out?

I’ll tell you why:

Apollo catching Daphne.

Bernini.

His name pops up everywhere. Upon entering the room with the pair-Daphne and Apollo-tears welled up in my eyes.

the room fell in a hush. As quiet as snow. No one could speak. The marble moves, flows, is the epitome of beauty, is the encarnation of pure art, is the climax of what mankind’s highest goals can accomplish.

Tenderness, surprise,wryness, coquettry, speed, gentleness: all are embodied and much, much more simultaneously.

Are these values? Yes.

Is Bernini a genius? More than yes. I am caught so unprepared for the depth of my own reaction that words fail. Now 5 weeks later I attempt.

What also am I attempting?

To connect with others’ thought,feelings, fears and joys relating to HOW to conect?

WHAT is importantf?

HOW do we know what we know?

HOW do we communicate what we know?

IS sharing living?

IS just experiencing internally more important?

Perhaps these are only qustion each of us can answer for themselves.

I take a break and wander out to get the mail,shffuling through a foot of white powder, brushing the puffy whiteness from the mailbox door and extracting a pile of letters,bills and a magazine Veranda…I open it to a page that says Roman Art From the Lourve coming to the US…and get excited since serendipity barges in with a bluster with such assertiveness.

Here I am pondering on Rome, on art, on values and the first page I turn to is…

Is that the way my mind functions? All minds function? We just pull and pull and tug until we see a connection?

Since all the universe is cononected is that how we do it? One tiny,miniscule bit at a time?

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