Small Packages, Big Things

We May Never Pass This Way Again

by Seals and Croft

Listen Here

 Life, so they say
Is but a game and they'd let it slip away
Love, like the autumn sun
Should be dyin' but it's only just begun

Like the twilight in the road up ahead
They don't see just where we're goin'
All the secrets in the universe whisper in our ears
All the years come and go, take us up, always up

We may never pass this way again
We may never pass this way again
We may never pass this way again

Dreams, so they say
Are for the fools and they let 'em drift away
Peace, like the silent dove
Should be flyin' but it's only just begun...

So I wanna laugh while the laughin' is easy
I wanna cry it makes it worthwhile
I may never pass this way again
That's why I want it with you

'Cause you make me feel like I'm more than a friend
Like I'm the journey and you're the journey's end
I may never pass this way again
That's why I want it with you...

Recently there was a talk given to the public at large which included a good number of young, art students. The speaker, an artist himself was exuberant, joyful and rather a bit nervous. And he had a lot to say, a lot. Time was short; his remarks crunched into a 45 minute segment. The students in the audience had other places to go and things to do. For his part the artist-speaker, a middle aged man had much to tell, some thought too much.
And then there were the traditional nude drawings that he and so many before him have studied and replicated. The human figure, it seems, is an unending source of wonder and beauty.

While he showed  many examples of his "body" of work, it was clear that he is quite competent renderer, and he clearly enjoyed cartoon figures; his profession as a graphic artist somewhat limited his progress in these areas. This man's personal story was bold, irreverent, witty, amusing, and at times, startling, if not simply shocking. And he became a bit defensive. His youthful student audience was some, a bit offended.

Should he have defended what is his work, the beauty of nature? Or was it simply marred by his interpretations, his perception of that nature? Maybe he would be better to allow the work to speak for itself, to allow the viewer to take it in, to possess what one may grasp of its essential nature-- but he, the artist, did not allow for that.

He displayed himself quite dramatically in response by pulling up his own shirt! The audience was aghast. And to a Simple Mind, he was sweet in his own clumsiness and part-ignorance. It seemed more that he was trying to get at the lyrics of the song above, but never did, so mired in himself he was. And it's true, "we may never pass this way, you make me feel like more than a friend; you're the journey's end..."

For this man, the process of life is clearly as important as the result. May he be forgiven for his clumsiness, his brashness and his desire to shock for control; big things most often do come in little packages. This one was no exception.

"There is an appointed time for everything,

and a time for every affair under the heavens..."

~The book of Ecclesiastes 3:1-15