Léon Spilliaert, 1907, Silhouet van de schilder
Circumstance, Meaning, Virtue

Willing to Understand

Meister Eckhart (1260-1328) is quoted as saying “A human being has so many skins inside, covering the depths of the heart. We know so many things, but we don’t know ourselves! Why, thirty or forty skins or hides, as thick and hard as an ox’s or bear’s, cover the soul. Go into your own ground and learn to know yourself there.”

Edvard Munch, 1896, Separation
Circumstance, Virtue

The Moment Before We React

When we are mistreated, most of us react, and reactions are emotional. We get angry, upset and we grasp the wrongful treatment with both hands, like a crab might his dinner.

Coloured lithograph, 1870, after J. Bakewell, 1771.
Circumstance, Meaning, Virtue

Turning Against the Ideal

We look up at the ideal we fall so short of, embittered. If only that target wasn’t so high, or better again, if it didn’t exist at all, we wouldn’t appear so dreadful! In doing so, we bring the heavens crashing down to join us in the slums. Now we are level.

Carlo Crivelli, 1486, 'The Annunciation, with Saint Emidius'
Circumstance, Meaning

What Does Life Expect of Us?

The old moral philosophers called it the ‘finis ultimus’ (utmost aim) or ‘summum bonum’ (greatest good). The utmost to aim for in terms of our character, for those around us and our society.

Fortuna, spinning the wheel of Fortune
Circumstance

Rising Above the Fortune We Are Dealt

It can be difficult to conceptualise fortune as we cannot see it or touch it, but we experience it nonetheless. Most difficult to grasp, is how random and often unfairly it seems to be distributed.

Circumstance, Meaning

How the Ordinary Becomes Extraordinary

The skyline is only broken by hilltops, most of them heaving with vast forests. Menacing echos of calls can be heard from deep within. Elusively evading our sights, thought wonders what lies in the belly of the dense forests.