Quote of the Day – May 14 2012

““If you hear a voice within you say „you cannot paint“, then by all means paint and that voice will be silenced.”
― Vincent van Gogh

 

I have been long familiar with that voice. You know, the voice that says “I can’t do it”, “You’ll never make it”, “Give it up and go home”. Most days if I hear it now it is but a whisper but at times in my younger days, it was so loud it paralyzed. It kept me off the stage in university tho i had done plays in high school. It stopped me from ever doing visual art or much with my writing.

Luckily at some point I decided that if I never did any of the things that caught my mind, life would suck. I started taking chances. I collected stories of people who didn’t care what the world thought of them. People like Joshua Norton, the only Emperor the United States ever had if only in his mind (and those of the many who humoured and honoured him. (Look up his story (Somewhere a few years back on this site are a few videos I made about Emperor Norton). I think of Florence Foster Jenkins, unable to carry a tune and yet selling out Carnegie Hall with people being turned away (they might have come to laugh but they also marvelled at her spirit) . “”Some may say that I couldn’t sing, but no one can say that I didn’t sing.” she told a friend and indeed she did

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Amazingly the people who came to her concerts were unfailingly polite. If they felt the need to laugh, they did so discretely. Vincent Van Gogh sold no paintings during his life and could not get anyone to take him seriously as a painter. Now he is considered one of the greatest the world has ever known. Perhaps it is only by living your dream that you can silence not only the voices in your head but the external ones as well.

Blessings, G

Click on images to see full size
With Which do You Identify? by G A Rosenberg

New Land by G A Rosenberg

5 thoughts on “Quote of the Day – May 14 2012”

  1. Forgot to say that you are the only other person I’ve ‘met’ who knows of Florence FG. A courageous woman with a dream that she made tangible. Thanks for that.

    1. She was amazing… or as the play that I saw that introduced me to her ‘Glorious’. She joined Emperor Norton as a strong hero of mine.

  2. Oh I love the New Land image. I can so relate with what you are speaking about here. In that frame of mind, that will I “make it” which for me means “sell” to the world, literally chokes me.

    When I am in the frame of mind of watching for signs of pleasing the world, even with my blog, checking numbers, what did I say that “they” liked the best. Worrying about keeping up with comments and posts simply to bring people to my blog, rather than creating connections, opening my mind and heart, learning from the family of humanity, I am sunk. It is then that I take a few days off, let my numbers plummet. Oh no! then awwwwwww, their gone.

    Then, I begin again. Do what your post says so well. Sing ME into the cosmos. And let what will be, BE.

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