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Three Peacocks -- God on the Ground
By: Stephen W. Simpson, Ph.D.
www.divinecaroline.com/article/22196/48183-peacocks--god-...
I freak out three or four times a year. It’s so consistent that I refer to it as my Quarterly Early Midlife Existential Panic Attack (QEMEPA). I wake up one morning and think, “Where is my life going? Why am I not making more money by now? How am I going to put quadruplets through college? My work makes me happy, but is this what I’m supposed to be doing? Can I make more money and still be happy? Have my pants shrunk or is it me?” These episodes last for about a week, leading to reckless behavior. I start exploring new career opportunities with wild abandon. I listen to get-rich-quick infomercials for a full thirty seconds before changing the channel. I eat and drink too much and sleep too little. I have grandiose visions of wealth and success one minute, then see portents of poverty and despair the next. My latest QEMEPA was more resilient than most. It lasted over two weeks with no end in sight. It was so bad that I hit the Prayer Panic Button.
While I was driving to work, I begged God to do something that would make me feel better right away. Of course, I don’t think God really works that way. I believe that God does stuff on God’s time, and it’s usually not a good idea to rush him. “God,” I said. “I really don’t need much. Just—”
I saw something blocking my path. It was so out of place that it took my brain a few seconds to figure out what my eyes were seeing. In the middle of the sidewalk stood three peacocks, standing in a line across my path, about six inches apart from each other.
I slowed to a walk. They remained still as I approached, watching me in all their green and blue glory. I stepped aside and passed them on the grass. Their heads pivoted in unison me, observing me as I passed. They didn’t seem frightened or even curious. It was as if they were saying, “You see us and we see you. Satisfied?”
I started running again as a smile spread across my face. Then it turned into a chuckle. Then I was laughing so hard that I had to stop running. I felt both overjoyed and silly for forgetting something very important: God is an artist.
If you’re like me, you want direct answers from God. You want problems solved fast. Sometimes that’s what we need and God is gracious enough provide it. But I think he prefers to paint us a picture. He shows off just a little bit of his love and power to calm us down. By sending those three peacocks into my path, God gave me all the reassurance that I needed. He told me, “I’m here. I love you. That’s all you need to know.”
Nowadays, trusting God is more important than ever. A lot of scary things are happening in the world. In times like these, it’s easy to get annoyed with God. “Are you asleep at the wheel, Lord?” we want to shout. “How about a little help down here?” That’s when we have to start looking for peacocks. We have to work harder to find God’s artistry in the world and trust that he’s in charge and he has a plan. And when we don’t get our peacocks, maybe God’s waiting for us to take responsibility and work harder for change.
existential paranoid question of the day: is he taking a picture of someone taking a picture of me???
Lifehacker had a post commenting on the minimalist lifestyle. The post suggested that such a life, avoiding owning too many physical things had advantages, but shouldn’t be oversold. Many responses ensued that raised existential questions aplenty. One post was this one:
I live in the real world.
In the real world, I am judged to a certain extent by my possessions.
What I have is a reflection of how well I’ve done. My ability to have nice things is concrete proof that I am a person of some means.
I live in the real world.
Women judge me to a certain extent by what I have to determine if I can be a good provider. They may not admit it to me. They may not admit it to themselves.
I live in the real world.
My peers judge me to a certain extent by the manner in which I present myself. My ability to have nice things in varied formats allows me to present myself in a manner that suits the occasion. My ability to do this conveys the message that I have some degree of taste and that my opinion should be respected.
I live in the real world.
While I may like minimalism or whatever “zen”-type adjective I choose to use, I also know that as soon as I start trying to evangelize about minimalism, I immediately put myself in a certain category and marginalize my ability to persuade.
The response seems like a suggestion that life’s purpose was established by evolution as:
survive and procreate.
At least that’s what I read into it. Each paragraph basically says have more stuff because that will:
impress women (allowing you to reproduce);
make your opinions more respected (give you power, ensure your
survival);
impress peers including those who can give you the opportunity to
acquire opportunities to acquire still more stuff; and
in general to follow an imperative of competition promote your own
success and to know that you have “been successful”.
Owning and acquiring things usually does do all these things. Realistically that’s true, and hence the chorus of “I live in the real world”. The responses bottom line seems to be: “he who dies with the most toys wins”. I find this sentiment (that I think is pretty common), kind of sad and depressing, and I hope it’s not all there is.
Aren’t we at the point of being self aware enough to think we have purposes other than just success in the sense that living long enough to pass our genes along defined it. Aren’t we aware that we are part of a larger whole? I think God gives this awareness. I’d like to hope that my life and existence will have ultimately contributed some things that will make the world better for others better in some way.
Bill Gate and Warren Buffet with their philanthropic activity I think realize this. They don’t want their legacies to be just a bunch of stuff they accumulated for themselves, and none of which likely will prevent their dying like the rest of us. Most of us won’t have the opportunity to have such a potential positive impact, I certainly won’t.
I hope that things I’ve acquired or produced may in a very few cases be of use to people I’ve never met. Things that I’ve accumulated but given away. Photos or writing that can be copied for other may stimulate an interesting thought or make someone’s day a little brighter. That part of why I’ve been putting a lot of stuff on the web of late hoping something useful for others will survive me.
In any case, case I hope their a better answer to the “why do we exist?” question than to accumulate stuff to:
survive and procreate.
Also found here at my blog.
020
FORTUNE Brainstorm Health 2022
Los Angeles, CA
Wednesday, May 11th, 2022
9:15 AM
EXISTENTIAL THREATS: PREPARING FOR THE NEXT GLOBAL HEALTH CRISIS
In a hyperconnected world rife with virulent pathogens, preparedness is our best defense. After Ebola roared through West Africa and the novel coronavirus brought the world to its knees, the most pressing question for the safety of the global population is this: What have we learned—and how can we better prepare for the next hyper-contagious disease?
Dr. Sandro Galea, Dean and Robert A. Knox Professor, Boston University School of Public Health
Dr. Angela Rasmussen, Virologist, Department of Vaccine and Infectious Disease, University of Saskatchewan
Moderator: Clifton Leaf, Former FORTUNE Editor-in-Chief and Founder, Fortune Brainstorm Health
Photograph by Stuart Isett/Fortune
Walking on foot brings you down to the very stark, naked core of existence. We travel too much in airplanes and cars. It’s an existential quality that we are losing. It’s almost like a credo of religion that we should walk.
There is, of course, something inherently romantic—if not heroic—about the extreme solitary explorer enveloped by nature. The very image of Herzog on foot recalls the iconic 19th-century paintings of Caspar David Friedrich, especially his Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog, with its lone figure staring out at the wide vista above the clouds.
'Truth itself wanders through the forests,' Herzog writes near the end. Yet here he embroiders his memories for effect: The vast swath of geography between Munich and Paris is littered with industrial towns and cities.
Once he comes out on the other end, traversing the deforested Champs-Élysées (“We were close to what they call the breath of danger”), Herzog emerges victorious.
― Of Walking in Ice: (Munich-Paris, 23 November–14 December 1974)
by Werner Herzog
020
FORTUNE Brainstorm Health 2022
Los Angeles, CA
Wednesday, May 11th, 2022
9:15 AM
EXISTENTIAL THREATS: PREPARING FOR THE NEXT GLOBAL HEALTH CRISIS
In a hyperconnected world rife with virulent pathogens, preparedness is our best defense. After Ebola roared through West Africa and the novel coronavirus brought the world to its knees, the most pressing question for the safety of the global population is this: What have we learned—and how can we better prepare for the next hyper-contagious disease?
Dr. Sandro Galea, Dean and Robert A. Knox Professor, Boston University School of Public Health
Dr. Angela Rasmussen, Virologist, Department of Vaccine and Infectious Disease, University of Saskatchewan
Moderator: Clifton Leaf, Former FORTUNE Editor-in-Chief and Founder, Fortune Brainstorm Health
Photograph by Stuart Isett/Fortune
Sick Girl (1881)
Artist: Christian Krohg
Christian Krohg’s Sick Girl has often been interpreted as a socially polemical painting, portraying the dark underbelly of modern industrial society. But more generally, the painting is a harrowing depiction of an existential theme, as succinctly captured by the art historian Jens Thiis:
“You encounter this sick child and recognize her as though she were your own, even as there is something in her eyes that recalls a sick animal. Uncomplaining, they hold you captivated, and you give in to a nebulous sense of grief, as you feel the pain of seeing her animal vitality being inexorably consumed by death.”
The neutral surroundings and simple clothes detach the image from time and space and focus our attention on the psychological content. The dying girl is heavily foregrounded, allowing the viewers to almost feel as though they are in the same room as her. We are confronted with a brutal reality, but the girl herself expresses no sorrow or despair. Krohg adhered to the ideals of realistic painting and rarely used symbols, but in this case the withering rose in the girl’s lap is an unmistakable emblem of transience.
We do not know who sat for Krohg’s painting, but there is reason to believe that the memory of his sister Nana’s illness and death in 1868 was a crucial backdrop. Krohg suffered the same fate as Edvard Munch in that he lost both a sister and his mother at a young age, and Krohg’s Sick Girl may well have been a source of inspiration for Munch’s The Sick Child (1886).
______________________________________________
www.visitoslo.com/en/articles/national-museum/
On 11 June 2022 the new National Museum opened in Oslo. This is the largest museum in the Nordics. The new museum now consists of the collections of the former National Gallery, the Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Norwegian Museum of Decorative Arts and Design.
The new museum has a permanent exhibition of about 6 500 objects. Design, arts and crafts, fine art as well as contemporary art will be exhibited alongside each other. As such, the permanent exhibition highlights interesting connections between different collections that previously have been on show at three different museums. Additionally, audiences will be able to see the most famous paintings by the Norwegian painter Edvard Munch, including The Scream (1893) and Madonna (1894).
The building was designed by Kleihues + Schuwerk Gesellschaft von Architekten, with emphasis on dignity and longevity over sensationalist architecture. Great care was given to achieve a balance with the museum’s surroundings and the existing monuments in the area, such as Oslo City Hall and Akershus Fortress.
The most eye-catching feature of the new museum is the large, illuminated exhibition hall on top of the building. It will be used for temporary exhibitions.
The rooftop terrace offers a unique view of the inner Oslo fjord. The square in front of the main entrance has become an urban meeting place, with benches and a café that invites you in to take a rest.
www.nasjonalmuseet.no/en/visit/locations/the-national-mus...
news.artnet.com/opinion/new-national-museum-norway-2129606
www.forbes.com/sites/davidnikel/2022/06/14/what-to-expect...
...
This mannequin caught my eye because when I first spotted him (rather, them) I thought it was a family standing out in the aisle. As soon as I got closer, I realized they were just mannequins.
I am sure that at least part of the effect here is what he was wearing, and the harsh overhead lighting in the store, but I have never seen a mannequin with a thousand-yard stare like this guy.
It's like somewhere in his plastic depths, he's having an existential crisis and questioning his life choices.
Your community does not exist. Social media meets anti-social media? Or existentialism rearing its ugly head? Either way, it was a very good laugh!
This is not on my map since it does not exist. Note the date stamp on the picture - which I did not modify! - as November 30, 0000.
C/O Berlin is opening SHOOT! . Existential Photography tonight at 7 p.m. at the Postfuhramt, Oranienburgerstrasse 35/36.
You are all cordially invited to join us and find out about the peculiar fascination of fairground shooting galleries: making a target of one’s own ego, or—for the price of a picture—succumbing to the temptation of staging a duel with yourself as the opponent.
C/O Berlin, 4.Februar 2011
Ausstellung
SHOOT! . Fotografie existentiell
5. Februar bis 27. März 2011
Eröffnung Freitag, 4. Februar 2011, 19 Uhr
Sick Girl (1881)
Artist: Christian Krohg
Christian Krohg’s Sick Girl has often been interpreted as a socially polemical painting, portraying the dark underbelly of modern industrial society. But more generally, the painting is a harrowing depiction of an existential theme, as succinctly captured by the art historian Jens Thiis:
“You encounter this sick child and recognize her as though she were your own, even as there is something in her eyes that recalls a sick animal. Uncomplaining, they hold you captivated, and you give in to a nebulous sense of grief, as you feel the pain of seeing her animal vitality being inexorably consumed by death.”
The neutral surroundings and simple clothes detach the image from time and space and focus our attention on the psychological content. The dying girl is heavily foregrounded, allowing the viewers to almost feel as though they are in the same room as her. We are confronted with a brutal reality, but the girl herself expresses no sorrow or despair. Krohg adhered to the ideals of realistic painting and rarely used symbols, but in this case the withering rose in the girl’s lap is an unmistakable emblem of transience.
We do not know who sat for Krohg’s painting, but there is reason to believe that the memory of his sister Nana’s illness and death in 1868 was a crucial backdrop. Krohg suffered the same fate as Edvard Munch in that he lost both a sister and his mother at a young age, and Krohg’s Sick Girl may well have been a source of inspiration for Munch’s The Sick Child (1886).
______________________________________________
www.visitoslo.com/en/articles/national-museum/
On 11 June 2022 the new National Museum opened in Oslo. This is the largest museum in the Nordics. The new museum now consists of the collections of the former National Gallery, the Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Norwegian Museum of Decorative Arts and Design.
The new museum has a permanent exhibition of about 6 500 objects. Design, arts and crafts, fine art as well as contemporary art will be exhibited alongside each other. As such, the permanent exhibition highlights interesting connections between different collections that previously have been on show at three different museums. Additionally, audiences will be able to see the most famous paintings by the Norwegian painter Edvard Munch, including The Scream (1893) and Madonna (1894).
The building was designed by Kleihues + Schuwerk Gesellschaft von Architekten, with emphasis on dignity and longevity over sensationalist architecture. Great care was given to achieve a balance with the museum’s surroundings and the existing monuments in the area, such as Oslo City Hall and Akershus Fortress.
The most eye-catching feature of the new museum is the large, illuminated exhibition hall on top of the building. It will be used for temporary exhibitions.
The rooftop terrace offers a unique view of the inner Oslo fjord. The square in front of the main entrance has become an urban meeting place, with benches and a café that invites you in to take a rest.
www.nasjonalmuseet.no/en/visit/locations/the-national-mus...
news.artnet.com/opinion/new-national-museum-norway-2129606
www.forbes.com/sites/davidnikel/2022/06/14/what-to-expect...
...
Walking on foot brings you down to the very stark, naked core of existence. We travel too much in airplanes and cars. It’s an existential quality that we are losing. It’s almost like a credo of religion that we should walk.
There is, of course, something inherently romantic—if not heroic—about the extreme solitary explorer enveloped by nature. The very image of Herzog on foot recalls the iconic 19th-century paintings of Caspar David Friedrich, especially his Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog, with its lone figure staring out at the wide vista above the clouds.
'Truth itself wanders through the forests,' Herzog writes near the end. Yet here he embroiders his memories for effect: The vast swath of geography between Munich and Paris is littered with industrial towns and cities.
Once he comes out on the other end, traversing the deforested Champs-Élysées (“We were close to what they call the breath of danger”), Herzog emerges victorious.
― Of Walking in Ice: (Munich-Paris, 23 November–14 December 1974)
by Werner Herzog
Brewery: New Holland Brewing Company
Holland, MI, USA
Web site: newhollandbrew.com/corp/beer/high_gravity
Beer style: Imperial IPA (Double IPA, IIPA)
Alcohol (by volume): 10.5%
Tasted at: home
On the 25 October 2016 Philip Hilm presented his lecture "The existential risk from artificial intelligence" at IIM (Institute of Intermedia), FEL CVUT (Czech Technical University) in Prague.
Philip Hilm had earlier an career as a professional poker player and is now an artificial intelligence researcher.
Lecture:
For further information:
IIM (Institute of Intermedia)
Hall H25 at FEL CVUT
Technická 2
CZ-160 00 Prague.
Czech Republic