Osmar Schindler, 1888, "David und Goliath". Colour lithograph
Meaning, Virtue

The Function of Fear

Fear offers us a very plain choice; be courageous or be a coward. A hero or a reprobate. With quotes from Michel de Montaigne, Seneca, George R.R. Martin & William Shakespeare.

Pablo Picasso, 1904, The Frugal Repast. The Met. © 2018 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Circumstance, Meaning, Virtue

A Policy of Appeasement

“Blessed is he, who has learned to bear what he cannot change, and to give up with dignity, what he cannot save.” We take on the responsibility of appeasing someone’s feelings, foolishly attempting to control something we can’t. Quotes from Schiller & Huxley.

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.”

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.

Malnazar and Aghap'ir, 1637 - 1638, David in Prayer
Virtue

The Trouble with Compassion

Like handing someone a glass of water while they are engulfed in flames, it does very little. The danger is that we are only really fulfilling our own need or want to be ‘compassionate’ people, in this vain sense.

Caspar David Friedrich, 1818, Woman in the Sunset
Meaning, Virtue

Self-Deception: Finding Harmony (3/3)

With these lies we build a fragile fantasy that is not in line with the truth. Our perception is delicate, constantly threatened by exposure. On the other hand, when we align ourselves with truth, we start working with the world, rather than against it. There is harmony.

Gustave Dore, 1855-1861, Dante’s The Divine Comedy-Inferno, Canto XXXIV
Meaning, Virtue

Self-Deception: A Trip to the Underworld (2/3)

We don’t want to venture down there and face the damage we have caused. The alternative however, is more devastation every time the truth comes knocking; and it will keep coming. So, we muster every ounce of courage we have left, open the hatch door, and delve underground.