Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Love Life Live


I can't remember where I read this, but I came across it last night in my diary and it made me smile and think..."how true"...
"The gods where bored, so they invented humans.  But the gods were still bored, so they invented love.  The gods were not bored anymore.  The gods decided to try love on themselves. And then they invented laughter to make it all more bearable..."

Sometimes life and love is so utterly messed-up that all you can do is laugh.  In the beginning the laugh might be bitter and hollow, but eventually, however painfully slow, it becomes meaningful and genuine.  Because in the end, despite it all...we do still have a lot to laugh about!

So maybe it's not so much about loving and living as separate entities or carefully constructed acts, but about loving the life you live as a sometimes perplexing, but beautiful whole...

Ps...about the picture - The Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli...I remember growing up paging through my mom's art textbook and being completely fascinated by this painting.  I would sit for hours and dream up stories about the mystical creatures spread out on a double page nestled in my lap.  When, years later, I was lucky enough to stand in utter awe in front of this masterpiece in the Uffizi Gallery in Florance, I could not stop the tears.
So while we are on the subject of love and gods and gods in love...I find Plato's interpretation of the above painting quite beautiful..."Venus had two aspects: she was an earthly goddess who aroused humans to physical love or she was a heavenly goddess who inspired intellectual love in them. Plato further argued that contemplation of physical beauty allowed the mind to better understand spiritual beauty. So, looking at Venus, the most beautiful of goddesses, might at first raise a physical response in viewers which then lifted their minds towards the Creator..."
Got to love Plato, man of The Forms, philosopher, mathematician, writer of dialogues and humble admirer of Venus.
Andizi

1 comment:

  1. The museum has now a bit of an extended arm on the internet http://www.haltadefinizione.com/galleries.jsp?lingua=en

    In this gallery you can study famous paintings in detail. Birth of Venus is one.

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