I went to an art show earlier this month and figured I would feature one of the artists, Gug Underwater! He photographs underwater creatures. This is one of his night exhibits, Aliens.
And now onto the show.
Books
I read Address Unknown by Katharine Kressmann Taylor. This was a revolutionary epistolary from the 1930’s chronicling Hitler’s rise through letters between friends—one Jewish German managing an art dealership in the USA and his partner, a non-Jew, who returns to Germany. The story is a remarkable unraveling of life, friendship, and humanity and in its time, revealed Hitler’s impact on Germany’s Jewry, with which the general American public was unfamiliar.
At one point, the Jewish art dealer begs his friend for help and appeals to his liberal sensibilities. The response is brutal and final.
“A liberal is a man who does not believe in doing anything. He is a talker about the rights of man, but just a talker. He likes to make a big noise about freedom of speech, and what is freedom of speech? Just the chance to sit firmly on the backside and say that whatever is being done by the active man is wrong. What is so futile as the liberal? I know him well because I have been one. He condemns the passive government because it makes no change. But let a powerful man arise, let an active man start to make a change, then where is your liberal? He is against it. To the liberal any change is the wrong one.
He calls this the ‘long view’, but it is merely a bad scare that he will have to do something himself. He loves words and high-sounding precepts but he is useless to the men who make the world what it is. There are the only important men, the doers. And here in Germany a doer has risen. A vital man is changing things. The whole tide of a people’s life changes in a minute because the man of action has come. And I join him. I am not just swept along by a current. The useless life that was all talk and no accomplishment I drop. I put my back and shoulders behind the great new movement [German Nationalism and Nazism]. I am a man because I act. Before that I am just a voice. I do not question the ends of our action. It is not necessary. I know it is good because it is so vital. Men are not drawn into bad things with so much joy and eagerness.
You say we persecute men of liberal thought, we destroy libraries. You should wake from your musty sentimentalizing. Does the surgeon spare the cancer because he must cut to remove it? We are cruel. Of course we are cruel. As all birth is brutal, so is this new birth of ours. But we rejoice. Germany lifts high her head among the nations of the world. She follows her Glorious Leader [Adolf Hitler] to triumph. What can you know of this, you who only sit and dream? You have never known Hitler. He is a drawn sword. He is a white light, but hot as the sun of a new day.”
I urge you to read this brief, but compelling tale.
Beats
Jessie Murph Cowboys and Angels. Give it a listen and write back with two words to describe her voice.
Barbells
Two months into the new year. Where do you stand with your resolutions? Are you making progress towards a better version of you? What does that even look like? Considering everything that is happening in the world at the moment, I decided that I want to take care of myself in a way that allows me to fortify others. That means being able to “shut off” and recharge in order to supply others with energy when I get back online. How can you recharge more effectively? Solo or with friends? Playing with grandkids or reading a book in your favorite chair? Give yourself 15 minutes. Recharge.
Sending a 30 second embrace to everyone who needs it.
Peace and love,
Kit
Find the balance. 