Love and Anger

Self Portrait, ball point pen

While navigating the BFA program at the University of Akron, my best friend Connie Morris used to say that she liked people who had a little “rot around the edges”. I love her and that quote. Being an outcast and having come from an abusive family into a former marriage of abuse; I experienced firsthand the reactions of people not able to grasp the irony and insights of those of us who are odd and left out.

Watercolor by Connie (Morris) Wilson

 I lost touch with Connie (Morris) Wilson but I was sorry to hear from a friend that she died at age 51, leaving three sons and grandchildren. Her husband Richard Wilson preceded her.

Perhaps it’s the time we take to tear our souls apart and display those darker pieces which are most moving and helpful to the world. Guernica by Pablo Picasso may just be his greatest piece and I am sure his darker nature enabled him to create such a moving work.

Guernica is a painting by Pablo Picasso; the Spanish Civil War 1937

We love the movie that takes us through the depths of despair, sometimes to lift us up, but not always; often we are faced with unanswered resolutions; so we must seek the light ourselves.

Abuse is often covered up by lace curtains in the finest homes. We make panhandling illegal in Tampa Florida but offer no alternative care for the homeless who may be plagued with mental illness or drug addiction. 

Who does not love the sunset and the pretty women in fine dress? But who reaches deep within their themselves and speaks the unspeakable in picture to get the soul to listen, to be aware and not sweep images that move the soul to action under the rug?

I will rise to the challenge in the best way to love God, to look, to feel, to show compassion and not to turn away.

As the poet Carl Sandberg says, "Even God gets tired of too much hallelujah”.