Life As Performance Art 118

While preparing for the end of the world, I also have to get ready for work today. It will be one of my lighter work days. Just a couple of meetings in two different worksites. There will also be time in between to stop in one of my favourite coffee shops for a snack and time to work on a drawing, then walk a good distance to my second meeting. If the world is going to end soon, then it probably won't be today. In the meantime it is a mild overcast kind of morning, 18 degrees and all seems well in the universe. I am waiting for my eggs to boil, two eggs that I will soon have for breakfast with two slices of whole wheat toast and a slice of cheese, natural peanut butter and strawberry jam on the toast, of course. While enjoying a wildly intense and delicious cup or two of dark Cuban roast coffee (fair trade organic, natch) Nothing like a good breakfast to get you ready for the end of the world. I intend to spend some time this morning working on my art. I have a couple of projects on the go: one is the third portrait of my friend in Colombia. I seem to do portraits these days much the way Frida Kahlo did hers, with little bits of symbolism. Except I paint other people. Self-portraiture does not, nor ever has interested me. I'm not narcissistic enough for that kind of art. One friend described my second portrait of my Colombian friend as resembling a tarot card, because of the way that it features butterflies and keys. I just finished my third drawing, in this current sketchbook, of a regal sunbird (look it up, they are stunning!) and now I am working on my first giant fire opal (ditto) I cannot provide any images, unfortunately, because this blog page no longer supports copy and paste, so you are going to have to do it yourselves, darlings. While there is still time. The world hasn't ended yet. While supplies last! The world has been coming to an end these last two thousand years or so, since Jesus and his apostles first began to warn everyone. This doesn't mean they were wrong. The world simply didn't end in their lifetime. Nor in the lifetimes of those who have followed in this way of thinking. It's simply that God is eternal, and therefore is never in a hurry. Neither are we. The world is going to end, maybe today, maybe tomorrow, maybe in ten thousand years, or a million years. In the meantime, let's make art and create beauty. We all have a shelf-life. None of us is here forever, though I understand that there will be rather different arrangements in the next life. The fireworks are tonight, and another half million or so will be gathering around our shorelines to be dazzled and amazed. That would be an awesome finale, but there are many other parts of mother earth and many other different time zones with vastly different agendas and things going on. So, not tonight, darling, I have a headache. None of us is here forever, and we could still all be snuffed out in the twinkling of an eye, so let's enjoy what we already have. But even more than that, let's take care of one another. Yes, let's also take better care of ourselves, but we are all in this together. How about in the way we treat strangers? Especially the very poor, the beggars and the homeless, the most very vulnerable among us. And other folk as well. The next time some idiot cuts you off on a right hand turn, whether driver, pedestrian or cyclist, how about resisting the urge of road rage? Yours may be the last human face that person will ever see (especially the way they are driving!). How would you like to be seen off to your eternity? And for the people already in our lives, family, friends, coworkers, neighbours, people we have forgotten, those who have forgotten us. The world could end today. How can ours be the kindest face they will have seen before their time is up and the cosmic lifeguard has blown the whistle for the last time. Of course, the world is going to end for all of us. No one gets out of this life alive. It's written in the contract. Each moment is precious, because each moment, like life itself, is a gift, so let's cherish and treasure each of these moments, and one another, as we all make ourselves and one another ready for the next great journey of our pilgrimage.