Our world is filled with images that renew vision and meaning. Just take a minute to look around. Sometimes you’ll find these images intentionally placed for their uplifting effect in living, working, or public spaces: like Mark Koslow’s vibrant nature paintings, Mettje Swift’s hanging banner art, or John Pugh’s spectacular murals. They can also spontaneously occur in the course of our daily life.
In a May 26, 2009 interview on Book TV with John Dinges, Professor of Journalism at Columbia University, Uruguayan historian Eduardo Galeano shared a personal anecdote that illustrates an instance of spontaneous renewal. Responding to a question regarding how he collected his stories of 30-40 lines for Mirrors: Stories of Almost Everyone, he said:
GALEANO: Trying to unite this divorced part of ourselves – the mind and the heart – and the horrors and the marvels of life. Because if I would just be writing about repression and death and the terrible life of so many people who are living in this planet like living in hell, then I would be betraying Reality, because Reality includes another side. And fortunately enough, each day we have evidences that Reality is not only this dark side we may look at…
DINGES: What are your sources?
"Palm Warbler" by Mark Koslow
GALEANO: Reality. Like for instance, recently – I have recently arrived here, in the States – but when I was coming, the day before, and I was walking as usual – I’m a walker – and I was very sad because my companion, my comrade, my friend, Morgan, my dog – he was supposed to be a dog – died. So I was very, very sad. And this was the dark side of me and of Reality. That day, four, five days before arriving here, and I was feeling that everything was terrible. And I crossed a little girl who was jumping, coming, perhaps two years old, no more, and she was alone, walking, and jumping, and celebrating life while I was walking with all my sadness inside and mourning Morgan. And then she – I realized that she was stopping and then walking again, and stopping. And she stopped each time she was hearing birds singing in the trees. And then I looked at her with more attention to see. She would stop, hear the birds, and applauded. And so when she applauded the birds, my inner part – still alive, still able to celebrate life – woke up.
Waking up to images that renew, being aware of their power, and consciously employing them to counterbalance the many negative impressions that bombard us each day are useful methods of maintaining our sanity. When we, like the little girl, can applaud the birds in the midst of stress or sadness or the world’s madness, we become living proof that mind and heart can be united as dual aspects of Reality.
Professor John Dinges is the author of The Condor Years: How Pinochet and his Allies Brought Terrorism to Three Continents.
Eduardo Galeano’s 1971 book, The Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent, was given to President Obama by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez during the Fifth Summit of the Americas in April 2009.
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“Waking up to images that renew, being aware of their power, and consciously employing them to counterbalance the many negative impressions that bombard us each day are useful methods of maintaining our sanity.” GREAT POINT!!!
Sergey, Eduardo Galeano’s book, “Mirrors,” is full of interesting historical vignettes from all over the world — highly recommended!