Be Cheerful, Live your life– that is the translation of the words on this mosaic.
Archaeologists recently uncovered this wonderful mosaic floor with those words in Antakya, formerly the Greek-Roman city of Antiocheia, in Turkey that dates back over 2200 years, back to the third century BC. This is an area that is famous for the discovery of a multitude of floor mosaics that once decorated the homes of the upper crust of society.
This particular mosaic feature three panels with the final panel being a reclining skeleton with bread and wine just chilling out. The central panel shows a man with butler in tow heading anxiously toward his evening bath which was a communal event at the time. 9 PM was the time for bathing and to be late was frowned upon which he obviously is as he is pointing to a sundial which indicates the time as being between 9 and 10 PM. The first panel, which is damaged, is thought to have a figure throwing fire which is symbolic of the preparation for a bath.
But it’s the skeleton with it’s message that kind of lines up with Bobby McFerrin‘s song from a number of years back, Don’t Worry Be Happy, that catches our modern eye. I think we don’t give the people from the past, both from the near past and the very distant past, with having a sophisticated view of life or sense of humor. To see something like this gives us a closer connection to how they saw their own world as well as allowing us to see that they were not so different than us even though 2200 years separate us.
So, if you’re fretting on this Monday, hurrying around to beat the clock (or sundial), just remember that partying skeleton and heed its advice–Be cheerful and live your life. If you need an accompanying beat to start the week off on the right foot, there’s little dose of the Booby McFerrin song at the bottom.
Every spring the Library of Congress selects 25 recordings that they deem to be “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” to be added to their National Recording Registry. There is a wide selection each year with recordings from all genres of music combined with radio broadcasts. speeches and other spoken word recordings.
I wanted to feature some music this morning that kind of jibed with the Henri Matisse Blue Nude cut-outs above that the artist produced in the early 1950’s. I wasn’t sure what I wanted but I settled on something from composer Burt Bacharach. 
Ah, the dark days of winter are receding. The trees are budding out and the green of the grass (under the newly fallen four inches of snow!) is pushing aside the dead growth of a long gone last year. The robins have returned and once again the world makes sense– the daily metronome that is major league baseball returns today.
Sunday morning quiet…
Last week, we watched the HBO documentary Mavis! which is, of course, about the career of singer Mavis Staple. Ever since I have been going to YouTube to listen to her early gospel work with her family, the Staple Singers, in the 1950’s. It’s just great stuff, a little gritty and blues-edged beneath with her vocals soaring above it all. It seemed so ahead of the time, especially given what was being played on pop radio at that point.
There’s been a huge resurgence as of late in interest in the music and life of the great Nina Simone, who died in 2003 at the age of 70. You hear her music on all sorts of movie and television soundtracks and commercials. There has been a couple of documentaries made of her life ( this includes the highly acclaimed What Happened, Miss Simone? on Netflix) and there are a number of big screen biopics in the works.
I have always been a big fan of the movies. I’ve written here in the past how I will often paint while an old movie plays in the studio, especially some of the older classics that were often based on great ideas and great dialogue. They are not distracting in most cases and it’s easy to pull thought and emotion from these films that finds its way into my work. It’s hard to not want to inject more feeling into whatever I am at work on when I listen to some of the lines from The Grapes of Wrath or so many other great films.
Valentine’s Day.
Redtree Times 