Unwrapped Thoughts on a Wednesday

Today, I had many thoughts for writings go through my head.  I'm going to write a few of them out, give you a glimpse into them.  Some are heavy seven course meals that I've not been able to make it through yet.  Others are simply the garnish on the side.  I'm not intending to wrap this up in a nice little package to place under the tree.  Rather, I'm going to unwrap the package and open it and leave it there for you and me.  So let's get unwrapping.

This morning on my way to work, I saw the sunrise against the Chicago skyline.  The buildings were softer in the morning light.  The sky was grey-blue.  The clouds were lavender-gray and glowing pink.  It was beautiful.  It was a moment I wish I could picture and hold in my mind forever.  As I was observing it, I felt an aching absence from something not yet gone.  And I wonder if you ever experience this?  Missing something, even when you still have it.

I watched part of a video about the blackest substance on earth.  Because true black absorbs all light, we cannot detect by sight if an object in true black has a shape.  This had me wondering if black holes have a shape and if we would even know it if they did?  A co-worker explained a Hawking's theory on it, and matter, and anti-matter, and the theory that they'd glow.  It was all a bit over my head.  But I understood the general idea.

I read an introduction to Virginia Woolf's book A Room of One's Own that started many sparks.  I may make an entire post about this on a later date.  For tonight, suffice it to say I'm contemplating how white males have produced much of our modern and current art*.   More than produced though, I'm considering how they have shaped and defined art.  This is leading me to reflect on how much humanity as a whole is suffering by only have this group represented in the arts.  I can only dream of how much more beautiful our art would be, how much more human our art would be, if women and all ethnic groups produced and held equal weight in the arts.  I wonder how our definition of art would change?
*If you want, try to think (or do google searches) of famous writers, musicians, composers, screenwriters, sculptors, painters and just take note of the gender and race.

I was also considering how our senses interact with each other and impact us.  Does our food taste better when the light is bright and the room is filled with color?  If the sun is shining on us and we are listening to a powerful music that speaks to our soul, what lasting impact does that have on our mood?  If we really can slightly alter our perceptions in a positive way, should we orchestrate our environment and our lives in such a way that it brings us joy and delight and rejuvenation? 

Now that all of our heads are spinning (or at least mine), I will end it here.  These are just a few Wednesday thoughts, contemplation, and questions ignited from experiences today.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

On Stained Glass

"Our stained glass means nothing without light."   It's a lyric by Sleeping at Last from the song "Sight" that has been running through my mind over and over again for weeks now.   It is a powerful image.   I have always been mesmerized by stained glass windows.  I remember sitting in my grandparents' Lutheran church as a child contemplating the scenes they depicted of Christ.  But at night without the light, they lose their spell.   In darkness, they become nothing.    In this advent season, remember the Christ who came as light of the world.  Remember our lives are nothing without this Light.  Soak in the beauty of these stained glass windows  as the light beams through.  May our lives be just as beautiful as we allow the Light to shine within and through us. 
Read more

Stationary

I have the strong desire to write a new post.  I'm not sure why.  I've been uninterested in doing so for over a year now.  But tonight with only one hand, I'm feeling enough of an urge to lead me to plunk at the individual letters on the keyboard at a rate half of what I'm used to in order to create this.  While doing so, I've opened Pandora.  I've not listened to music on Pandora for over two years now.  Upon opening, I looked through the 20+ stations I'd created in the span of six or seven years and I recalled the various times in my life.  The times that lead me to create these stations because the music somehow reflected an emotion I felt or an experience I had or I simply delighted in the particular style of organization in the sounds.  I have found these small paths that I'd created years before and I allowed myself to travel down some of them, to remember these times in my life.  Music is powerful and I can tell this is going to be a ...
Read more

Signs

My mom and youngest sister came to visit me in Chicago just over a week ago.  Being from Idaho, we don't typically walk to places there.  It's too far- people (apparently) like their wide open space.  While out and about, I tried to give them landmarks they could set their eyes on so they would know how far we had left to go. My sister and I set out to pick up our Thai take-out.  As we came to an intersection, I told her the place was just past Pizza Hut.  Confused, she searched around for the Pizza Hut.  I had to tell her it was the building literally across the intersection, right in front of us.  As we laughed about how obvious it was, she told me she had been looking for the sign and not the actual building.  And I made a comment about how that could be used for a good analogy... Sometimes we look for the signs all around when the landmark is right in front of us. or even Sometimes we're searching for the sign pointing to the sight show...
Read more