Action is its own reward--to act, to create, to fight against the facts, to conquer them or be conquered by them, all human joy and health consists in that. --Vincent Van Gogh in a Letter to his brother Theo.
Vincent Van Gogh was a prophet of painting. I had a mystical moment looking at the swirling lines of his painting, Starry Night at the Art Institute in September of 2001. I couldn't help it. I was looking at the painting just after terrorist attacks on 9-11-01, so my perspective of the painting was a projection of my feelings at that moment. The fierce winds crashing through the dark tower like cypress trees remind me of the sinking towers of the World Trade Center in New York during the September 11, 2001 bombings. The expoding stars suggest he saw all the bombs going off ending worlds of people all over the earth. The exploding stars also remind me of the invention of the atomic bomb here in Chicago. The swirling winds making a yin and yang symbol of heaven and earth seem to suggest an enormous male sperm swirling over the world, which symbolizes the AIDS crisis and pandemic in the world. The mountains look like they are becoming giant waves rising on a small unsuspecting town and engulfing it and crushing and flooding all it's people like an earthquake, symbolizing all the earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes and floods happening in the world. The crescent moon suggests the Turkish flag, and the stars represent the Jewish Star of David and The Christian star of Bethlehem. What will the future have in store? Will the stars explode and end the solar system and the universe, ending the human race? Can we stop it from happening? Please write to your congress person about ending the war. We need to restore peace in the world now. Too many people have died. I think God put me on the earth for this moment, to spread this word, so feel free to send this out to all your friends as a chain letter and tell anyone about me. Van Gogh lived on the river Roubine and the street Cavallerie in Arles, France which is very similar to my first and last name. Click here and go directly to the map of Arles --Arles sounds like my neices name who was born on Christmas eve. My mother was born on Easter(www.artic.edu/aic/exhibitions/vangogh/maps/maps_arles2.html ). There is also a one in the name Rhone River which is why I wear the one bracelet for one.org. Why is the church in the painting one of the buildings in the painting with the lights out, in total darkness inside? Has our time lost hope and faith? Maybe it's time to renew faith, whatever it is of what you believe God is. Love=Liberation.
I could write a book about my personal perspective of Jesus and Christianity, like James Baldwin's "Go Tell It On The Mountain." My Univeralist, Unitarian instincts steer me toward a humanist approach to religion that is all inclusive. Every living creature on the earth embodies something of the marvelous. All creation on the earth has a purpose. My main concern regards those who have attempted to love me and transcend all doubt to keep faith in me. Coping with the conflicts that life presents to all can be difficult and have made many people give up on each other. It is unfair to generalize about anybody because the sinner today can transform into a saint tomorrow. I have seen some very frightening forms of intolerance that have made me deliberate that some people are fiercely and yes, stubbornly, set in their own opinions. People who exclude all people outside their religion are making the mistake of ostracizing some very sensitive and intelligent people that can contribute to the humanities. The bible says that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life. "Whosever" is an important word in this scripture found in the book of John. "Whosever" is all inclusive and doesn't impose discrimination on anyone.
Read my profile or click on the sites below to see how you can get involved. And Thanks for your patience in reading this. Contact me if you wish.
To see the painting Starry Night by Vincent go to www.VanGoghGallery.com
or you can go to www.moma.org (The New York Museum of Modern Art site) and see it on the New York Musuem of Modern Art Collection search. Search: Starry Night. Chicago's Art Institute has a couple Van Gogh's too at www.artic.edu (The Chicago Art Institute site where you can see part of the Van Gogh/Gaugin art exhibit that I saw in 2001. There's a great book about that exhibit).
Thanks and you are all in my universal prayers.
tell all about this:www.myspace.com/earthcircle
www.nobelprize.org/peace Read speeches written by geniuses
www.congress.org Write a letter to your congress person about anything
www.hrw.org Human Rights Watch
www.iwillevolve.org Keep the air clean
www.climatecrisis.net Watch The Inconvenient Truth and determine for yourself if the world is ending little by little. Write your congress person a note just saying watch The Inconvenient Truth.
www.teachforamerica.org Please help create more brilliant teachers.
www.poetrycenter.org Stop illiteracy and read more poetry
www.avert.org Know AIDS statistics
www.terroristattack.com Leave a note for the family of a victim of the September 11 bombings
www.legacy.com Read the biography of many of have perished in the past years of war,terrorism and flood.
www.ceasefirechicago.org End random gun violence
www.bradycampaign.org Make a difference about gun violence. In 2004, guns killed 11,344 people. Please write congress to help end gun violence and stop the sale of firearms at certain places where crime happens most.
www.neighbor-space.org Start a community garden
www.theovernight.org Help prevent suicide
www.cancer.org Stay aware of cancer issues
www.unicef.org Help kids get what they need all over the earth
www.blueletterbible.org A New Way to read the bible
www.baus.org Read about the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism
www.poetsgraves.co.uk Take a walk through the cemetaries of the world and see where great poets where buried and read some of their poems. The poem "To the Virgins To Make Much of Time" is one of my favorites by Herrick, who was part of a group of poets called the Cavalier poets in England who were inspired by Ben Johnson. They also called themselves the Tribe of Ben. Ben Jonson was one of the last persons Shakespeare was seen with before he died. "The Tempest" is Shakespeare's last play. Does God posess poets just before their death?
www.english.emory.edu/Bahri Read Biographies of talented people like Ruben Dario and learn about Post-Colonial studies.
www.sensesofcinema.com Read great, intelligent critiques on Great Directors of film.
www.earthcircle.org Listen to indigenous music
www.one.org End extreme poverty in the world. Everyone needs everything they need to survive in the world: food, clothing, and shelter.
www.amnestyusa.org Human Rights for all
www.greenpeaceusa.org Take responsibility for what's happening in our environment
www.pedaids.org Give to children with AIDS all over the world
www.starlight.org Support kids with terminal illnesses
www.childrenofthenight.org Stop Teen Homelessness and prostitution
www.cybertipline.com An organization called Missing and Exploited children want to help stop sex predators from approaching minors with pictures of nudes. Call 1-800 THE LOST if you know of anyone sending pictures or approaching minors in a sexual way.
www.RobinHood.org End the homelessness of American families
www.veryspecial.org Support the www.SpecialOlympics.org Have yourself a very special Holiday season. For a Very Special Christmas compilations of many musicians raising money for this cause.
www.hrc.org Respect the rights of Gay People
www.abovetheinfluence.org An informative website to try to keep young people from doing drugs. Chose to stay smart over killing brain-cells.
www.musicforamerica.org Register to vote, volunteer, stay informed and do something politically active no matter what you believe. You have freedom of choice, use it.
www.johnlennonday.com Because no genius should have to die by gun violence on American soil. John Lennon Day would make people think peacefully on October 9.
www.peacemuseum.org You are not alone in the world. Where there's help, there's hope. This was the only museum in the world opened in the eighties to make people aware of the importance of peace in the world. Bono visited it and was inspired to write the unforgettable fire after seeing drawings by a WWII atomic bomb survivor. The original handwritten lyrics for Sunday Bloody Sunday are on a wall their too. Read Martin Luther King Jr. acceptance speech and lecture at www.nobelprize.org/peace.
Here are the lyrics to a great song about that painting:
Vincent(Starry, Starry Night)
by Don Mclean
&NBSP;< P>
Starry, starry night:
Paint your palette blue and gray.
Look out on a summer's day
With eyes that know the darkness in my soul.
SHADOWS the hills.
Sketch the trees and the daffodils;
CATCH chills
In colors on the snowy linen land.
Now i understand
What you tried to say to me,
And how you suffered for your sanity
And how you tried to set them free.
They would not listen; they did not know how.
Perhaps they'll listen now.
Starry, starry night:
Flaming flowers that brightly blaze;
Swirling clouds in violet haze
Reflect in vincent's eyes of china blue.
Colors changing hue:
Morning fields of amber grain,
Weathered faces lined in pain
Are soothed beneath the artist's loving hand.
Now i understand
What you tried to say to me,
And how you suffered for your sanity
And how you tried to set them free.
They would not listen; they did not know how.
Perhaps they'll listen now.
For they could not love you
But still, your love was true.
And when no hope was left inside
On that starry, starry night
You took your life as lovers often do.
But i could've told you, vincent:
This world was never meant
For one as beautiful as you.
Starry, starry night:
Portraits hung in empty halls:
Frameless heads on nameless walls
With eyes that watch the world and can't forget;
Like the strangers that you've met:
The ragged men in ragged clothes.
The silver thorn, a bloody rose
Lie crushed and broken on the virgin snow.
Now i think i know
What you tried to say to me,
And how you suffered for your sanity
And how you tried to set them free.
They would not listen; they're not listening still.
Perhaps they never will.
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