Seeking the Sublime in the Everyday

So nice to see Bernie at the Inauguration.   Since then he's been everywhere. Here in my neighborhood, stalking my cousin Tom in LA;  he's everywhere, and his team is selling his image on sweatshirts and everything printable, making a bundle for the Vermont Foodbank and Meals on Wheels and inspiring creativity and generosity all over the place.  The company that made his jacket gave away fifty jackets just like his to women and little kids!   Here's Bernie celebrating his election as Mayor of Burlington in 1981.  In 2015 when Bernie ran for president and everyone was saying "Who's that?"  this picture, taken by my brother Rob, was all over the news. This week Rob added the mittens to bring the image up to date.  That's not Rob's first dance with fame.   You may have seen this photo in 2012 or so. It went viral. the internet doesn't seem to know who took it, but it was Rob.  Everyone thought those cows had something to say. At one point this w...

 I looked up the Biblical quote President Biden made in his inaugural address; it comes from Psalm 30, "Weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes with the morning."  If you continue reading you'll find,  "You have turned my mourning into dancing; You have taken off my sack cloth and clothed me in joy." Whatever your credo may be, I hope you find comfort and hope in these words. Moving on, I want to say thank you to everyone who responded to my call for ideas for characters to inhabit my drawing, Red House. The first to respond was my friend, Ellen Grossman, who reminded me of this photo from a previous post about one of my favorite places on Earth--the Bronx Zoo.  This is the interior of the Elephant House--Jessie took her own kids there and thought of me when she saw this handsome rhino. Ellen's an amazing artist--you can see her work at ellengrossman.com and if you google Ellen Grossman and Jay Z you'll see an adorable video of a moment on the su...

 Last week I forgot to say Mazel Tov to Jon Ossof, Georgia's first Jewish senator, and now the youngest member of that august group.  I remember when I was appalled to realize there was a Supreme Court justice my age and now there are senators younger than my children.  Even so, I still feel younger than Springtime. Here's a favorite artist/writer who showed up regularly on the cover of the New Yorker-one hundred and twenty times, over the course of seventy-three years.  William Steig  (1907-2003)    Here's his cover for May 9, the very day my dear cousin Kate was born.  (Don't worry, Kate, I photo-shopped out the year.) William Steig's art is wonderful but his writing is sublime. At the age of sixty, in a move to make money, he began to write for children.  His most famous book is probably Shrek, the horrible ogre who lives happily ever after, because it was made into a movie.  But there's Dr. DeSoto, a mouse dentist who can't refuse to...

 What did I say last week?  It has to get better doesn't it? OY VEH! Wednesday, January 6, also known as Epiphany, Three Kings Day, Twelfth Night, began in optimism and erupted into chaos.  But Georgia's new Senator-Elect, Rev. Raphael Warnock, pastor of the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church, quoted Dr. Martin Luther King; "Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that." Then he said in his own words, "Let each of us try to be a light to see our country out of this dark time." After he's sworn in will we refer to him as the Reverend Senator? Now let's talk about me. Work is progressing on my new drawing, Red House, but I've taken a rest because I don't know, or I haven't decided what to put in the windows.  While I think about that I've started a companion piece, the interior of the house. Here's the ground floor--maybe it's the reception hall. I want to give it a ...

Well, here we are.  As my friend Nancy said, 2020 has been a rough couple of years.   I just reread what I wrote at the end of 2018. "We’re coming to the end of a year that’s been so hard for so many of us, full of discord and fear for our neighbors, our leaders, and the planet, our home."  Can you believe it?  I wrote that in 2018! What an innocent!  I had no idea how bad things could get.  It's like the fates or the Universe or whatever forces might be said, "You think that's rough? I"m just getting started." Here's what I wrote then.  But there have been  hard times before this.  I have a Christmas card sent by my grandparents, probably in 1944, in the midst of World War II, when Hitler raged across Europe.  The picture on the front is a church window with advent candles on one side and an American flag on the other.  Through the window, we see the star of Bethlehem.  Inside, the message has those familiar words from Lu...