Tag Archives: Age

“What Happened?”

It was a long time ago.  Many images had blasted my eyes over the years but then there was this one.  I don’t remember if it was girl/woman or boy/man.  A poster hung on a wall somewhere – a glowing child next to a dull adult.  There were two words at the bottom: “What Happened?”

A few years back I blogged about this.  My small mind says not to repeat it in 2023.  But why do small when you can do huge?  I’m a different person now, living in a different country, having new experiences.  So here goes …

Drink in two female human beings.  Forget that one is a photo and one a sculpture, that one is recent and one ancient.  Just look at the eyes … and the mouths.

What you see may not be what I see. (And isn’t that what makes the world go ’round?) Anyway, for me there is joy and resignation, presence and absence, immersion and putting a toe in the water.

I don’t have an answer to “Why?” I’m sure we can all come up with educated guesses but the contrast between these two invites something far deeper than the reasonable mind.

Let’s look at two more citizens of our planet:

One face is level with the world. The other gazes a little down, perhaps the weight of life pressing hard.

One is so open, welcoming whomever comes by. The other is shielded and in pain.

As human beings, they both face “the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune” but the responses are widely apart.

And a final pair for you:

In April last year I visited the Norman Rockwell Museum in Massachusetts, USA. He was a marvelous painter who caught the essence of people. As I ambled from room to room, only a few paintings grabbed me. This girl certainly did. How come breakfast can be such joy for some of us?

The woman is accompanied by her child but there is no connection. Mom is elsewhere. The young one deserves more.

…

And so …

I am happy

I am sad

Just A

Often when I hear people talk about something, they describe what happened, or what was said. Then they go on to give me the meaning they see in that. The moral of the story.

In those moments, I wonder what’s in the mind of the speaker. That his or her truth is the truth? Or that the onlookers aren’t smart enough to come to their own conclusions? Mathematically, the strategy could be described as A → B. What if we just talked about A and left it at that? There may be a lesson but you figure that out. Your lesson may be different from mine.

***

I watched a commercial on CNN today for Aetna Medicare.  A black man, maybe 60, was shooting hoops on a community basketball court.  Not only shooting, but sinking every shot … from well behind the foul line.  Oh, he was having fun!  Every once in awhile he’d glance off to the side.  Behind a chain link fence were three teens.  The girl in the middle held a basketball, and was flanked by two guys.

The girl’s eyes went wide as the man kept nailing his jumpers.  She shared a huge smile with her friends.  The boys were cooler about it but you could tell they were impressed.

Finally the guy smiled at the kids and made a wide sweep of his arm.  The girl basically jumped out of her skin and raced for the gate.  The fellows stood there for a few seconds but then followed the girl’s lead.

The next image was a fast game of two on two.  Everyone was so intense!  Then the man wings a pass to the girl and she swoops in for the layup.  High five across the generations.

***

And now is the time for me to stop
(Grin)