2010 a lesson in grisaille living

A new year and everywhere you look people are advocating resolutions or warning against them. I overheard a woman complaining at the grocery store that she didn't know what to do! I wanted to tell her that she knew what to do but I am not sure she would have understood.

Exactly, when did people stop thinking? I know people who refuse to form an opinion until after they've heard what their pastor, father, husband, son or favorite pundit has to say. You've noticed that I kept the opinion makers male, ever increasingly I find women who have shut down. It's so much easier to allow a man in your life to dictate your beliefs, it's also cowardly and can be spiteful. When everything goes wrong, it's easier to blame others than ourselves.

I have enjoyed reading the opinions and advice on New Year's resolutions. I am reminded of a definition of insanity: to do the same thing over and over and expect a different result each time. That seems to be the message of those who say no to resolutions -you do them every year and never keep them, so... On the other hand there are those who think we've just been doing them wrong.

My Grandfather once told me that I should listen to everything anyone is willing to tell me. In an hour of blather, I might pick up a few minutes of wisdom. I do this all the time. It allows me to 'listen in beauty' and to learn. I prefer a grisaille life to a black and white one.

So many people see the world in black and white, right or wrong, saved or damned, worthy or unworthy -it breaks my heart to think of all the joy they miss. It's like going to the best buffet in the world and having a cup of coffee and a few pieces of toast.

A Grisaille Life

Grisaille is an art term meaning the shades of grey. JMW Turner is a favorite artist of mine. He paintings take my breath away and his life a fascinating example of not wasting a moment. Turner painted outside during the mild months and inside during the winter. What fascinated me was learning that Turner painted in grisaille when outside, he saw the colors yet painted in shades of grey. Once inside, during the winter months, he painted from these sketches in colors –wonderful, emotional, powerful colors. I have spent many hours meditating on his method. One look at his paintings and you are lost int he fact that these colors are from memory and the sketches were a method for him of saving the color to memory.

I think it would not hurt us to look at al the data given to us daily from news, family, ministers and pundits and seeing it in a wash of grisaille but using it later in life in color. See the many facets and each side, process the information and add in our personal convictions and logic. The colors we paint on the data is our dignity, grace and compassion. We may live in a world that has a 2 hour memory span but we are not the world we are individuals in the world and our memory and capacity for reasoning should not be wasted.