Blog #
107…July, 2020
Time
dissolves and another month has passed - many pages in my appointment book are blank. The other day I wished I’d kept a journal to capture the time since pandemonium
struck, but the empty pages shout loud enough. And yet, it’s
been full too, of uncertainty, fear, melancholy and occasional sweetness. I’m getting used to Zoom and YouTube (sigh).
A close
friend died a few weeks ago, not of the virus but after 90 years of creativity,
intelligence and warm loving friendships. Not being able to be with her in the
last weeks gave me a slight taste of the sadness of so many others who had to
say goodbye through window panes or not at all. And a couple of others close to
me are suffering, closing the gap between life and death a little.
Death,
natural and inevitable as it is, is something we avoid talking about …passing
away or just passing, going to spirit,
kicking the bucket or, for sports fans, the final inning, all ways we avoid saying it…as if not
saying the word will keep the event at a distance, at least for now. When
we’re born, we’re issued a return ticket, non refundable, but at the
moment anyway, we’re on the outward journey.
And we're concerned with life and lives, our own and others, how they're being lived today and how they've been lived throughout history. Museums and galleries, movies and books all tell stories about a period, what we did, how we thought and the values held. As time passes and these values change, we're left with relics that should remind us of wrongs done as well as courageous acts.
What to do about statues, schools, streets or buildings built in the name of men (women probably contributed and acted wrongly too but we're seldom recognized are we?) who've committed acts against humanity, large and small? Berlin and Budapest both have collections of statues of discredited heroes in public places where they and their heinous acts can be displayed and viewed in the context of the era. Tearing down or removing seems to me to be missing a chance to look at the mistakes of the past and live with the discomfort that comes with a nuanced view of history
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| Charles Schulz |
