Thursday, November 2, 2017

“I freed a thousand slaves. I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves.” – Harriet Tubman

2 November
From “The Human Condition: A User’s Manual,” by Arnold Kunst
You’re off to do the culture-vulture thing in Europe? Sounds wonderful! Let me, if I may, give you a bit of advice: I wish for you to notice all those benches in all those museums you'll be visiting; sit down in front of all those Vinus di Milos you're going to see, and let them work their magic on you as they are meant to. Let their symmetries, their colors, their textures seep into your pores. You could, of course, catch up on your emails in that museum but, to be honest, that sounds about as odious as skate-boarding in a church. Give up managing. Instead, surrender to the genius of the artist, and let yourself be pliable to his emotional thrust.
Do that and you will come back immeasureably enriched. In fact if you do it right you will never be the same again. You will know the wisdom of Oliver Wendell Holmes: ‘A human mind once stretched will never again return to its original dimensions.’


No comments:

Post a Comment