People just had to trust me to tell them the truth. But how could I verify what I was saying? Oh I know. I'll send photos. That should convince even the toughest skeptic! Nobody could doubt my reports if I sent " real" photos, right? Case closed.
But hold on a moment. Just because I send an electronic message and even if I include dozens of electronic images, how does that verify anything? I could be making all this stuff up and sitting at home hallucinating all these "adventures", inserting some stock photos from the internet, and claiming that I was really experiencing these events. People would just have to trust me to tell the truth. After all, I wasn't some kind of huckster politician. Right? Wright.
About 8 months ago, I stumbled upon an art history series produced by the BBC called Perspective. It was kind of a lucky find because my nephew, Davis, had come for a 2 week visit to Lucca and he fell head over heels in love with Florence. Florence was one of the places I really didn't Know very well and really didn't want to know very well either. It was a city. It was noisy. And it was crawling with tourists (overrun is more accurate). All the things that I wanted to avoid in Italy was what I saw when I visited Florence. I started watching this program out of self defense. I had to at least be able to carry on a conversation with him so I didn't look like the complete country bumpkin I was. Hey I know a thing or two about Renaissance art, too.
As I learned a little, I started to mello on all the treasures that were strewn about all over Florence. But much more importantly, I saw art from a totally new perspective. For most Americans, art is a subject you take in school. You paint some primitive pictures of your surroundings. You study a bunch of "Famous" paintings. You pretend to enjoy going to a museum. You learn a few cool terms like "Impressionism" and "Flying Buttresses" so you can go to dinner where they use real silverware. And then, later, you can move on to Sunday Night Football.
One of the few things I actually retained from these wonderful presentations was that Renaissance art was a magical invention that allowed artists to make the impossible, possible. Artists were able to show in graphic details, the unimaginable. What was heaven like? What was hell? What did God look like? What did all the hidden symbols mean? What did all the obvious symbols mean? How can you show a 3 dimensional vision on a flat piece of canvas? Art wasn't a course you took during the Renaissance. Art was an integral part of life. It was everywhere. It was how illiterate people were able to make sense of the world around them. It was their illustrated instruction guide for the universe.
Here Satan eats poor condemned souls and then excretes them
Into hell. Not all that much fun.
A carved pulpit depicts the illustrated history of mankind. Indeed.
A glorious illustrated hymnal from about 1400s with musical notes
Paper sculpture of man on a tightrope. Puccini's home is in the background. Lucca paper artists exhibition, 2021
Street art in chalk. Lucca. 2021. This will be washed away by the next day.
I think there might be a summary and or conclusion to this idle banter. I think (or perhaps, I HOPE) that after nearly six years of traveling, mostly alone, maybe I have learned some important lessons that I probably wasn't able to accept in my past life. Being alone for long stretches of time has forced me to look inside and to be a bit more honest with myself. My months away from home base allowed other competing influences to seep into my soul. I think I have learned to appreciate silence and to accept whatever was thrown in my path. Tolerance was never my strong suit. I wanted things to be the way I wanted. Italy is great teacher for accepting what is. You will never bend this place to your will. The deck is stacked against you. But, having come to grips with accepting what is, you can start to love why it is like this. You can't speed this place up. The best you can hope for is to savor the trip at half speed. That way you can enjoy a leisurely stroll. You can actually taste a $3.00 scoop of gelato. You can sit in a cafe and just watch the parade. You can gaze at the clouds for the first time. You can learn the difficult art of patience. And you can relish the thought that you were lucky enough to learn anything at all. Maybe, just maybe you can even help others see what you have seen.
I hope you can trust me about this observation. It's been a hard won lesson. Trust me.
That's my story. And I'm stickin to it.
Dan
