If you put a woman in a fish costume and throw her in the water, you can choose to believe she's a woman in a fish costume or you can believe she's a mermaid. Most of us want something beyond us, something mysterious in our lives. So we always choose to believe she's a mermaid even though we know she's a woman in a fish costume. We would rather be full of wonder and awe.
Which made me think of the book I'm reading, Sarah Dunant's The Birth of Venus - Love and Death in Florence. A conversation between two characters went something like this...
...hell always holds more fascination than heaven...it is because we have all felt pain whereas it is harder for us to understand the sublime...The pain of hell reminds us of earthly pleasure.
I think it's true that we accept paintings of heaven readily whereas we stare at and study paintings of hell, sometimes mesmerized by the images of suffering and torment.
Later, I said to The Man, My going to India is a whimsical thing. I have no reason to go except I have never been and the opportunity is there. He said, Your going is not so much a flight of fancy as a leap of faith. It requires courage to go. You don't know what you will get out of it till you go.
It's true that I will have done something I've never done before and I may discover something I didn't know I needed to discover.
But India? Culture of female oppression in the heat and dust of corruption, over-population, and poverty. It will be like stepping into hell. Yet, I am going. It's almost a natural unfolding that is hurling me to India, a place I have never desired to visit. I think I am going to a portal of hell to look for wonder and awe. Maybe in the land where humanity brims over, I might get a peek at the sublime, or at least be reminded of the earthly pleasures I have.
1 comment:
Sylph,
Rather I go to Canada ,Toronto even better, then going to India the way you are going. You are a brave girl, and what an adventure. Sure I will say a few Ave Maria's in october for you.
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Yes we are home again and enjoyed our vacation very much. Lee Garden was very special, the best tenderloin we ever had. Visited the Royal Ontario Museum, but don,t like the new addition ,they tried to copy the idea of the glass pyramid at the Louvre in Paris. The things inside about China were interesting.
We took the ferry to the Island Airport and indeed the washrooms are very clean. Then the Music Garden, it was there quiet and beautiful, my wife needed more than an hour to see everything and taking pictures also of the monarch butterfly. And yes we saw the three bar stools on Bathurst bridge.
Canada and Toronto , for me, it has not changed that much because I do go regular every 10 th year for sure. My wife's last time was 30 years ago, so for her yes it was different.
Next time we go we would like to rent a cottage and stay there for a week in the nature. This time we enjoyed hiking and canoeing in the Frontenac Park for only two days.
Thank you again Sylph for giving the ideas and information.
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