Goldfinches...
. ...."they sing not for the sake of winning..
But for sheer delight and gratitude..
Believe me they say
It is a serious thing to be alive this fresh morning in this broken world.".
Mary Oliver
The story I wrote once about the "The Goldfinch", that 1654 piece of art above by Carel Fabritius, started out with a bit of fury, "Who would do such a horrible thing?" It was woven around the obscenity of tying a songbird to a perch for one's amusement. What a limited life the bird would have, wild as it is, fettered in a house with the ability to fly just inches. It makes me sad to think of that still.
My story then discussed my Grandmother's limited life, she who never drove a car, also Amanda Berry, a teenager kidnapped and held captive in Cleveland for ten years, and women totally clothed who are beaten if an ankle shows. It made me appreciate how open my life is.
Strangely, the words that came to mind as I woke up today were these two: tether-ball and kaleidoscope. I know better now than to throw my hands up and scratch my head. Tether ball involves playing with a soccer ball attached to a pole by a short rope. The ball is very limited as to how far from the pole it can go. The ball is dun colored, uninteresting to look at, although I bet the game is fun.
And this is what I was given to understand by these two words. What we know of life, of the Creator, is about the amount of space between the pole and the ball. What God really is that our minds cannot fathom is something like a Kaleidoscope, that fascinating instrument many of us had as toys when we were children. Is there any limit to the colors, the shapes, the configurations that we can summon as we slowly, slowly turn the kaleidoscope's moving part? I can remember feeling like I was looking at another magical world so unlike my own. This , this wonder, is a glimpse of what we are to encounter when we travel back to our home. Deo Gracias
1 comment:
I'm glad you brought to life again the story of the goldfinch, because I heard on the radio that there is a new movie out based on this art...then to say that I remember liking to play tetherball at school recess...and the post I wrote a while back on kaleidoscope...maybe to say God is kaleidoscope...a very nice post.
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