“”I have pretended to go mad in order to tell you the things I need to. I call it art. Because art is the word we give to our feelings made public. And art doesn’t worry anyone.”
— Iain Thomas
Real art has the ability to make us uneasy. Yet like the King’s Fool of old, the artist is allowed to say things in their art that others would never be able to. At its best, it holds up a mirror to show us both our flaws and our beauty and force us to see things from a new angle. If artists are considered off in ways or mad, perhaps it is the insanity that comes from looking too often into the dark and unusual aspects of our existences. After all fools do go where angels may fear to tread.
Blessings, G
“…even a mirror will not show you yourself, if you do not wish to see.”
― Roger Zelazny
Mirrors all around me
in every stranger’s eyes
amidst my lover’s thighs
in between truth and lies
and I realize
the reflection has grown dim
How can I see clearly
the parts of me I rarely
interact with sincerely
when it is masked by another
Could it be I’ve grown lazy
or my vision a bit hazy
out of fear that I’ll go crazy
upon gazing at my soul
I maybe somewhat shy
from my self I might hide
calm myself with the lie
that I don’t need to know
— G A Rosenberg
Blessings, G
Click on images to see full-sized:
Rising Glory by G A Rosenberg
After the Tower, Before the Stary by G A Rosenberg
“I saw all the mirrors on earth and none of them reflected me.”
— Jorge Luis Borges
I reflect on my reflection
and realize no connection
to that pasty pale complexion
that I see
I remember me as younger
and my body lean with hunger
yet the belly hanging under
won’t agree
Still the years have been much kinder
then I deserve, its a reminder
of the truth I’ve been a finder
and I seek
yet the body has a balance
mind and spirit more a challenge
that I chose, that was my talent
I won’t weep
I’ll put it all together
make my whole self much better
to this challenge that I’ll weather
I will leap
— G A Rosenberg
“It is quite possible—overwhelmingly probable, one might guess—that we will always learn more about human life and personality from novels than from scientific psychology.”
— Noam Chomsky
I have spent most of my life in the pages of books. I have befriended characters in the stories I’ve read and had conversations with them that have lasted well into the night. They have taught me so much. Psychological case histories are all well and good yet the diagnoses always follow the case studies and then tend towards the theoretical. In a well-written book or a good story (the two overlap but aren’t identical) different characters with various mindsets interact and through the interactions of their personalities there is incalculable value to be found. Fictional characters can be at least as real as the average person you meet (and far more than most online personas).Different branches of psychology work well for various people tho in the long run too many of them adopt a “one size fits all” solution and believes that it can benefit anyone. Encountering different mirrors of yourself both in fiction and in life can accomplish a lot more if we open ourselves to the experience.
Blessings, G
“What should I possibly have to tell you, oh venerable one? Perhaps that you’re searching far too much? That in all that searching, you don’t find the time for finding?”
― Hermann Hesse
In searching for the true essence of something, do we deconstruct it, reduce it to its component elements? In all the parts that make up our physical form, where do we find our essence… a doctor (or butcher) could dissect us in every way possible and still never see it… Perhaps to understand the essence of something, the trick is not to open it but to open ourselves…and find that in ourselves that relates…
True Mirrors, whether they be people or objects can either cause us unbelievable bliss or painful aversion..all depending on how well we can handle what is reflected back to us..
It’s not meaning that we search for as much as that something in ourselves that will help us know and understand.
“Are you the new person drawn toward me?
To begin with, take warning – I am surely far different from what you suppose;
Do you suppose you will find in me your ideal?
Do you think it so easy to have me become your lover?
Do you think the friendship of me would be unalloy’d satisfaction?
Do you think I am trusty and faithful?
Do you see no further than this façade—this smooth and tolerant manner of me?
Do you suppose yourself advancing on real ground toward a real heroic man?
Have you no thought, O dreamer, that it may be all maya, illusion?”
― Walt Whitman
Must we come with warnings?
Each person we meet may read
“Beware of the mirror
standing before you,
he reflects imperfectly
everything you shine into him
including your own reflections
He sees you
so he may become more clear
by watching the ripples of his breath
against your surface.
You may not like what you see
reflected towards you
he may show you your imperfections, imperfectly.
But know that by gazing upon him
he will love you
to the best of his being
perhaps not as lover or friend
or whatever your stated purpose for coming
but for the beautiful imperfect looking glass you are
and for what you may create together.”
— GAR
“It is the obvious which is so difficult to see most of the time. People say ‘It’s as plain as the nose on your face.’ But how much of the nose on your face can you see, unless someone holds a mirror up to you?”
― Isaac Asimov
It takes a certain amount of courage to look into a mirror especially when there are others watching. Will it distort my features or show me true? Yet every time we interact with another we face a mirror. Does it reflect who we believe we are or does it show a fiction, one concocted in collaboration between the holder of the mirror and ourselves? Is the reflection more accurate from friend or from stranger.
I tend to enjoy mirrors. Perhaps that shows a certain amount of vanity or perhaps I relish even the flaws that I see in them. Perhaps I’ll learn where my blind spots are so that I can teach myself to see the view. Perhaps they have yet to reflect a challenging part of myself that I have yet to look at and when I do will I smash the mirror or accept it as what it is, another perspective and another step towards truth.
Blessings, G
Click on image to see full-size
A few collaborations tonight– that sprung from a picture done by a friend of mine Adam DrLightworker Brobjorg (http://www.oneaba.com)
Eye in the Flame by G A Rosenberg 
Her Avatar Appeared by G A Rosenberg 
Mauve Gateway by G A Rosenberg 
