Man is a part of the world, and his spirit is part of the spirit of the world. We are merely a peculiar mode of Being, a living atom within it, or, rather, a cell that, if sufficiently open to itself and its own mystery, can also experience the mystery, the will, the pain, and the hope of the world.
– Vàclav Havel
*****************
The Red Chair normally represents memory for me. Often it is the form of familial memory with the chair lifted by the branches of what seems to be its family tree. But in this newer painting, an 18″ by 36″ canvas that I call A Seat at the Table I see it as being part of a larger family unit, as a piece of the entirety of the world and the universe.
Oh, it may only play a small part but it is a part nonetheless, a link in the chained mesh of all things. It belongs.
It has a seat at the table.
And that’s an important thing to remember for each of us– that we do belong, that we play a part in serving to hold together this universe. We are not universes unto ourselves however much it sometimes seem. We best function in our parts when we seek to serve others and in some way strengthen our part of this universal mesh.
So play your part and involve yourself in the world, in the universe. You do have a seat at the table, after all.
Redtree Times 
This isn’t directly related to your post today, but I just came across it, and thought, “Oh, my.” It’s a quotation from James Baldwin:
“I remember standing on a street corner with the black painter Beauford Delaney down in the Village, waiting for the light to change, and he pointed down and said, “Look.” I looked and all I saw was water. And he said, “Look again,” which I did, and I saw oil on the water and the city reflected in the puddle. It was a great revelation to me. I can’t explain it. He taught me how to see, and how to trust what I saw. Painters have often taught writers how to see. And once you’ve had that experience, you see differently.”
You can read the entire interview here.
I love that anecdote. I wrote about Delaney’s work on the blog before ( https://redtreetimes.com/2012/01/07/beauford-delaneys-greenwich-village/) and can see how this simple observation plays into his view of the world. Thanks, Linda!
On Fri, Feb 20, 2015 at 9:12 AM, Redtree Times wrote:
>