"Life is indeed darkness save when there is urge, and all urge is blind save when there is knowledge, and all knowledge is vain save when there is work, and all work is empty save when there is love."
  - Khalil Gibran



Comments

Thersites said…
But I say, not in sleep but in the over-wakefulness of noontide, that the wind speaks not more sweetly to the giant oaks than to the least of all the blades of grass;

And he alone is great who turns the voice of the wind into a song made sweeter by his own loving.

Work is love made visible.

And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy.

For if you bake bread with indifference, you bake a bitter bread that feeds but half man's hunger.

And if you grudge the crushing of the grapes, your grudge distils a poison in the wine.

And if you sing though as angels, and love not the singing, you muffle man's ears to the voices of the day and the voices of the night.
Rita said…
Jen. Don't remember if we covered this in the past or not. Have you ever seen the Pieta? I managed a half decent shot of it five years ago, my nephew got a better one last year. Hard to do since it's protected by glass now because some nutcase tried to destroy it.

The incredible detail was breathtaking. The folds of the "fabric" and the raised skin under the arm of Jesus where she held him make it look alive.
Jen said…
Beautiful, fj. Who wrote it?
Jen said…
Rita, we didn't make it to Rome. The Pieta is amazing though. I can't fathom anyone trying to destroy it.
Khalil Gibran... it's from the same section of the "The Prophet" (on 'Work') which you quoted.
I suspect that Gibran would likely agree with Milbank on the nature of "work" and the necessity for its' 'rootedness" in love.
This sculpture is more a "role-reversed pieta". Who did it? It seems so Hitchcockian is it supposed to be Psyche and Cupid?
Jen said…
FJ....

http://www.alfredhitchcockgeek.com/2009/12/hitchcock-goofs-around-with.html


pbththt!
Thersites said…
That's not an answer... :P

that's not a pieta!
Jen said…
My bad, fj. I thought you were referring to your own link, not the original sculpture.

Here's what I found:
It's an addition to the Medici Fountain in the Jardin du Luxembourg.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Fontaine_M%C3%A9dicis_Luxembourg.jpg

Galatea and Acis found out by Polyphemus the Cyclops
Jen said…
I think it's changed quite a bit when the "background" is cropped out. Seeing it as a whole changes it for me. (Seeing Polyphemus above the two lovers.)

hmmm....

I have some strange feelings about "changing" classical art in that way.

I wonder what Ducky would say about it?? :-) Considering that every photo is a "lie" anyway...
Thersites said…
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Thersites said…
Yes, context CAN be everything... but I do believe this to be a wonderful work without it! :)

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