Redtree Times

Soloist– At Principle Gallery, Alexandria,VA

Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies within us while we live.

–Norman Cousins

I wanted to play the song below today coupled with the painting above, Soloist, and wanted to add a short quote or passage to complete the triad. I wasn’t sure what the theme of this quote should be.

The song, She Slips Away, from one of my longtime favorites, guitarist Martin Simpson, was written about the death of his mother. I felt that there was an elegiac quality to the painting, that it was concerned with loss of some sort. But it didn’t feel like it had to be death that was being grieved.

Maybe lost love? Perhaps the landscape indicates the loss of our connection to the natural world? Or maybe it is something else– the loss of innocence or hope? Or maybe it is the grief that comes with losing one’s memories or losing a loved one to Alzheimers?

The song title She Slips Away always reminds me of the 2006 film Away From Her, which starred Julie Christie. It was about an older couple dealing with the wife’s Alzheimer’s. She is placed in a nursing facility where she loses all memory of her husband and develops a close relationship with another resident of the facility. That loss feels somehow greater than death itself.

I don’t know if that was what meant by the quote above from the late journalist/peace activist Norman Cousins. It is one of those quotes that is widely distributed whose original source is not easily found. I searched through all sorts of Cousins’ writings on the Internet Archive this morning and could not find a source. As a result, context is lacking.

So, I am taking it for what it is this morning, that there are losses greater than death.

Loss of identity. Loss of self-respect. Loss of confidence. Loss of friendships. Loss of trust. We continue to live despite these losses and so many others, often struggling to get beyond the often-overwhelming grief that comes with it.

I can see that in the painting and can hear it in Simpson’s song now. It all fits together.

Well, for me, at least…