Redtree Times

“Reverie“- Now Hanging at the West End Gallery

To laugh often and much; to win the respect of the intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the beauty in others; to leave the world a bit better whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; to know that one life has breathed easier because you lived here. This is to have succeeded.

― Attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson

I wasn’t going to write much this morning then came across the passage above supposedly from Ralph Waldo Emerson. It fit well with the little bit bit I was going to write. I didn’t doubt the origin but decided to find out which of Emerson’s writings contained it. Turns out this was another example of someone making an unfounded claim and it gains popularity and becomes accepted as fact.

Sounds like social media today, right? Unfortunately, it’s been going on for awhile now, though usually not with the malicious intent we see associated with such things today.

The faux-Emerson passage at the top began circulating around 1951 from an attribution in a syndicated newspaper column. It basically paraphrased a similar sentiment that was published over 45 years earlier in a 1905 Kansas newspaper, the Emporia Gazette. It was an entry from a Kansas woman, Bessie Stanley, in an essay contest whose aim was to provide an answer to the question: What constitutes success?

Here’s Mrs. Stanley’s answer, which earned her $250 which was a considerable sum in 1905:

He has achieved success who has lived well, laughed often and loved much; who has gained the respect of intelligent men and the love of little children; who has filled his niche and accomplished his task; who has left the world better than he found it, whether by an improved poppy, a perfect poem, or a rescued soul; who has never lacked appreciation of earth’s beauty or failed to express it; who has always looked for the best in others and given the best he had; whose life was an inspiration; whose memory a benediction.

I am glad to give the credit for this short essay to Mrs. Stanley. Emerson gets enough credit for the sentiments he actually expressed let alone those he never said or wrote. But I guess it doesn’t really matter who said it. It’s a nice simple blueprint for living.

Live a life that doesn’t harm but instead seeks to help others. Leave this planet better in some way for you having spent your time here.

It’s easy but not always as easy as it should be. Sometimes we head down paths that stray away from that simple goal and we find ourselves in need of recalibration. This sometimes leads to forms of redemption. This is most often associated with a religious reawakening in the individual. For others, redemption comes from changing their way of life out of the desire to live a simpler, uncluttered life free of regrets and guilt. One free from darkness and filled with light.

That leads me to the song I was originally going to share without much fanfare, River, from Leon Bridges. This is a song that is definitely about redemption.  While I am not religious, I understand the concept and the idea of anyone changing their lives for the better, regardless of the reason behind it, has an undeniable grace. This song has such a grace.

“The Fiery Forest“– Now at the West End Gallery

I am Envy…I cannot read and therefore wish all books burned.

― Christopher Marlowe

This painting, The Fiery Forest, is a real enigma to me. I just can’t quite get a grip on what I am seeing in it, can’t decide if it is filled with positivity or is more foreboding and ominous. It attracts me greatly yet sometimes makes me a bit uneasy.

It just depends on what is on my mind at the time.

I guess anything with fire has that ambiguity. We need fire in some form. It provides warmth and allows us to cook our food and boil out the impurities in our water, just to point out the obvious positives of fire. But it also consumes our homes and forests, leaving devastation and ashes in its wake.

It’s something we need but something to be contained and controlled. We walk a tightrope with the fires that burns in and around us. 

Sometimes looking at this painting, I see it as being about those things about which we are passionate. We allow ourselves to wander deeply into the fiery forest of passion as we seek to create something new from it. Yet there is always the possibility that this passion will consume us and leaves us no more than a smoldering piles of ashes. 

Today, I see our covid numbers once again jumping much too high with over 100,000 new cases yesterday–over 21,000 in Florida alone– mainly perpetrated by people’s refusal to vaccinate based on a stubborn distrust of science and a denial of facts that don’t align with their beliefs or desires. That leads to one interpretation I see in this painting that comes from our willingness to burn down the forest even as we know how to control it.

I don’t want to continue on a long political rant this morning. Neither of us needs that. I’ll let the words of Christopher Marlowe at the top speak for me this morning

I don’t know. Like I said, this paintings is an enigma, like much that makes up this world, stumping me even as I enjoy looking at it. 

Okay, here’s this week’s Sunday morning music. I am going with another Neil Young song, My My Hey Hey (Out of the Blue) which is the acoustic version. The thumping electric version is titled Hey Hey My My. I don’t know how well it aligns with this painting or my cluttered thoughts this morning. I latched onto out of the blue and into the black and it’s better to burn out than fade away, figuring it was close enough for me.

“Lux Templi“- Hanging now at the West End Gallery

There is a town in North Ontario
Dream comfort memory to spare
And in my mind I still need a place to go
All my changes were there

–Neil Young, Helpless

I was stumbling around this morning, not really having any idea what I was doing, when this song, Helpless, came on.  The original version from Neil Young has been a longtime favorite, one that I have played here a few times over the years. But I particularly like this version from the great k.d. lang and it really struck home with me this morning.

It was the first verse that did it, especially its last lines– in my mind I still need a place to go/all my changes were there. There’s something about the role memory plays in our wellbeing that jumped out at me, at least as I interpreted it. It reminded me of all the times when I have been in some sort of mental distress and how often I revisited my memory at those times to perhaps seek a point in the distant past that is remembered as being safe and comfortable– dream comfort memory to spare.

And in those distant memories seeking some sort of answer or clue to relieve whatever was troubling me in the present.

A reboot, a return to a point before all the changes. 

Of course, that’s an impossibility and for me that’s where the helpless element in this song takes place. While we may seek clues and maybe even comfort from the past, we are entities that have undergone changes, for better or worse, in the intervening time.

We face the present as we are. And the future? Who knows? The present will undoubtedly change us so we will be changed in some ways when the future meets us.

I thought the painting at the top, Lux Templi, felt right with this song. There’s a solitariness to it that has the feeling of the open spaces of northern Canada. I guess where it diverts from the song is that while it has this sense of aloneness, it doesn’t feel overwhelmed by it. It has both a sense of self-dependence and a spiritual connection with nature.

I don’t know. I’m just spit-balling here. Give a look and a listen and decide for yourself.

“Free to Breathe‘- At the West End Gallery- SOLD

My soul, be satisfied with flowers,
With fruit, with weeds even; but gather them
In the one garden you may call your own.

― Edmond Rostand, Cyrano de Bergerac

I tend to agree with the famous line from the poet John Donne that no man is an island, entire of itself. Every person, with only the most extreme exceptions, is in some way connected to the greater body of humanity, both contributing to and being dependent on it. The pandemic of the past year and a half has given ample evidence of our interconnectedness and interdependence.

Yet, I also believe that we need to have a refuge of some sort from being part of the whole of humanity. A place and time where we are sovereign and can feel, if only for a brief time, that we are apart from the thoughts, actions, and influences of others.

A place where we can air our ideas, thoughts, and dreams without the critical eyes, ears, and minds of others. A place where our responsibility is only to ourselves and our own wellbeing.

A place where we are free to simply breathe if that is what we wish. Or need. Sometimes a deep breath in the cool air of open spaces can make you feel like you are free of everything.

So, yes, no man is an island. But sometimes it does one good to be alone on one for a bit.

I wasn’t going to show this painting, Free to Breathe, here originally. It sold before I had a chance to write about it and I wasn’t pleased with my photography on this piece. It has tones of blue and green in it that don’t show well. I have difficulty capturing these specific combinations of colors with my own meager photography skills which is a shame because they often appear in my work. It is definitely one of those paintings, like quite a few of my works, that is quantitatively better to see in person. But I felt it deserved a few words since it’s a piece that I like very much and it carries message that is near and dear to my heart– that we all need space once in a while to think and create for only ourselves. Space to be the only one breathing the air around us.

“Pondering Solitude“– Now at the West End Gallery

I want to live alone in the desert
I want to be like Georgia O’Keeffe
I want to live on the Upper East Side
And never go down in the street

Splendid Isolation
I don’t need no one
Splendid Isolation

–Warren Zevon, Splendid Isolation

Just going to let the late Mr. Zevon take care of it this morning…