Chesterton, the Church, and Imagination

I found this recently while reading G.K. Chesterton's Everlasting Man. Here is your dose of Chesterton for the day:

"In order to strike, in the only sane or possible sense, the note of impartiality, it is necessary to touch the nerve of novelty. I mean that in one sense we see things fairly when we see them first. That, I may remark in passing, is why children generally have very little difficulty about the dogmas of the Church. But the Church, being a highly practical thing for working and fighting, is necessarily a thing for men and not merely for children. There must be in it for working purposes a great deal of tradition, of familiarity, and even of routine. So long as its fundamentals are sincerely felt, this may even be the saner condition. But when its fundamentals are doubted, as at present, we must try to recover the candour and wonder of the child; the unspoilt realism and objectivity of innocence. Or if we cannot do that, we must try at least to shake off the cloud of mere custom and see the thing as new, if only by seeing it as unnatural. Things that may well be familiar so long as familiarity breeds affection had much better become unfamiliar when familiarity breeds contempt. For in connection with things so great as are here considered, whatever our view of them, contempt must be an illusion. We must invoke the most wild and soaring sort of imagination; the imagination that can see what is there."

For Girls

I found this comment on facebook on a post about dating and the like. I don't know who the guy is, and I tried to see if I could comment and ask permission to post, but I didn't find a way. I am sure he wouldn't mind me sharing his awesome comment.
    I have to wrestle with the culture and some girl friends on this issue who JUST WON'T BELIEVE me when I say 1) for heaven's sake be single and get to know Jesus for a while and attract a real guy who knows how to LOVE, and 2) there ARE such men out there. You've got to believe me. But how on earth do you plan on attracting someone better unless you yourself become better? Until you know what true love is? Yes, girls are wonderful crown jewels of creation, they are beautiful and special, etc- but they are fallen, come from dark places, and need to grow as well. And having a boyfriend who is bad for you will not help you grow. YOU have to grow on your own. You and Jesus do that. 

Photo courtesy of Felipa-de-Noailles/deviantart.

"On a similar note, I think it is so sad that there are people out there who think Chivalry is dead. Believe me it's not dead, you're just hanging out with the wrong guys. So many girls have had to settle, instead of waiting for the right guy who sweeps them off their feet. I know it's hard to be patient and wait for the perfect guy, and I understand you may think you'll wait forever. But when I meet the girl of my dreams, I don't want her to have dated every single guy on the football team. I can't begin to tell you how attractive it is when I learn that a girl has been single for a while because they haven't found Mr. Right. And don't get me started on guys who disgrace the male population. They are everywhere, and they honestly make my blood boil. Truth is there are a lot of awesome, Holy men out there too! They aren't usually the most good looking, but when it comes to being faithful and giving of themselves, they would sacrifice their life for the girl they love. And honestly, girls have lowered their expectations, and guys have become lazy and followed suit. Call it the media, the sexual revolution, or just the society we live in. But it shouldn't be that way, and I know there are plenty of men out there who agree with me. If a guy isn't treating you right, and he's not willing to do everything in his power to change ASAP, then he never will, especially not after marriage. Ditch his sorry butt, because chances are he's keeping you from meeting Mr. Right. And if that means you have to be single for a while, then BE SINGLE! Take the time to fall in love with Jesus, the perfect example of true love. Let Him romance you first, because only then will you be able to recognize true love when you see it. Don't settle, and don't waste your time chasing after guys you wouldn't marry, no matter HOW hot they are. If everyone took the time to fall in love with God first, and to wait for the person that He has picked out especially for you, we wouldn't need divorce in this country. Let God be your matchmaker. He won't lead you wrong :)"

Have I Mentioned....

... That I love this man? I couldn't agree more.

I love how he uses The Birth of Venus. I myself have struggled with the nude form and the possibility that I might tempt viewers to lust by drawing/painting it- puritanism is a sneaky thing unfortunately. Once it gets it tentacles in you it can be hard to remove. It's one of those things that is like a tree root- nearly impossible to completely pull out. I have fought and read and prayed and fought and read and prayed. But finally, one day in Florence Italy, God struck a deadly blow, and I feel like own little Puritan Tree is dying of some disease. Funny, there are so many ways that beauty wounds and kills, but that is another topic.
    Anyway, that blow was this:

Botticelli's Birth of Venus

I never really cared for this painting before. But that was quickly remedied. In my semester abroad, I saw many lovely things- but some particularly struck me, and literally hurt me and left me breathless. This was one of them.
    That blow, and this one:

Michelangelo's David. Also in Florence.

I didn't get to sit and draw from The Birth of Venus. There were too many people in front of it! (Grrr!!!) But I did get to sit and draw The David for about 20 minutes. I will never forget those 20 minutes. Ever.

Mary and art and nudity will never be the same. Thank God.

Fascinating....

This makes me want to scour the comments on youtube of lovely videos to see what's being said.

My blog is about art- but over all, hopefully, about beauty.

Meago/deviantart

And of course:

"Beauty will save the world." -Dostoevsky (and I STILL have not read that book.)

BadCatholic Tackles Death Metal.....

... and he's brilliant as ever.  I mean, not to be a fangirl, but yes, I am linking to him again (and probably will again and again). And not to steal anyone's thunder, but I have totally thought what he said is so true! Those goths... they have no idea what dark means. They haven't even thought to imagine it's beautiful depths. You know, really, I mean, dead seriously, everyone longs to be Catholic so bad- they just don't know it yet.
    I know that I personally love darker things, but only darker things that have depth. The artist in me wants to somehow combine love, suffering, sacrifice, even death somehow in art. But as Marc mentions, today, death metal and the like are boring. They lack depth. They lack courage. I apply this to art. Type in "sacrifice" in the deviantart search, you get some model chick, half dressed, with some sort of blood substance somewhere, has too much make up, and is strewn across some decrepit looking structure or other with a pitiful look on her on her pouting lips. Nice. (Side note: not to completely bash deviantart. I use it myself right now, and for better or worse -usually worse- you can find what you want on there, and it does serve as a convenient free gallery for ones use and exposure. For now.)

I sympathize with them. I really do. If I weren't Catholic, had a life, a good family, etc, I would probably be one of them. I pity them.
    For what it's worth, here is what my emo/goth side produces:

Like Great Drops of Blood. Agony in the Garden.

I would like to think there is some difference. But of course, I am always learning. Both as a person and as an artist- while trying to combine the two in my art. Somehow.

Harry Potter, Chesterton, and Courage

   I will not be posting artwork this time- I am still working on my painting, and I thought about showing you the progress I've made, but I think I want to wait until it is finished. It is turning out well so far, and I am happy with it, and that is not a common occurrence.
   I have also thought about doing non look-at-my-artwork posts, and using my blog to share things I find, and to maybe share a thought or two here and there. I live a rather solitary life at the moment, which I like in some ways, but I must confess the idea of broadening my blogging horizons sounds attractive. That said, I want to share a new friend with you.
    I am a new Harry Potter fan. And I mean fan! (Yes, I do realize that I am about one million years late, but that's a long story- I was once a "Harry Potter has real curses and will have your kids killing kitties" misled little Catholic) I have been thinking about why this is. I've had my crosses, as we all do, and the topics of courage, love, and fighting have become both dreaded and loved by me over the past few years. They have become friends that are so close now, that the lovely sensitivity they cause is painfully and perpetually fresh. All the best friends wound you in some way or another.
    And so I love Harry Potter. It is a story of love and sacrifice and heroic suffering. Even if fate has dealt you a nasty blow, you don't have to become bitter or complacent- or seek out the One Ring, the best crystals for a super lightsaber, and the Deathly Hallows to undermine death, and take over the universe as the One All Powerful Overlord who spends her days planning out monologues to bellow to minions or enemies with her nails painted blood-red with the coolest black gothic outfit ever and stripes in her hair..... Ah hem, no, because suffering is not bad. (*gasp*) Yes, it is because of evil we suffer, but inn some ways, you could say we were born to live and suffer, and that is a gift, if we use it well. I am reminded of a F.J. Sheed quote I saw recently, "If Christ came to save us, then it must be noted that He did not come to save us trouble." Not that Harry was a saint to came to see all suffering as a gift to offer up- rather he is, as many other characters of the series are, struggling human beings who do what they can with themselves and their circumstances, and I think that is part of the luster of J.K. Rowling's series. They give and give and give- even if they are scared out of their wits, even until death. (I am not a completely brain-washed starry eyed fan-girl, I know the story has it's faults- but not all books that are good are written by saintly Catholic theologians, but they are written by people who have human hearts and are made in God's image... but that's about a dozen other topics in itself that I hardly feel qualified to discuss, at least at the moment)
    I think another reason I love the series is that while romance is not a prominent theme, it is still about the Great Romance- and I have found very few stories, at least in fantasy today (especially YA fantasy), that capture that Romance as well as J.K. Rowling did in her story. I will admit to not being nearly 1/gazillionth as literarily savvy as I'd like, but I have done a fair amount of reading in my life, fantasy being one of my favorite things in the world, and I have found few books that I love as much as these for that very reason. I think most if not all the books in my favorites list touch on it in some way, but these definitely make it to the top 5.
   Now, I could probably stay up all night giving you St. Therese quotes about suffering and digging up evidence in the Harry Potter books, but I think I will, of course, use Mr. Chesterton:

G.K. Chesterton on Romance

All romances consist of three characters… For the sake of argument they may be called St. George and the Dragon and the Princess. In every romance there must be the twin elements of loving and fighting. In every romance there must be the three characters: there must be the Princess, who is a thing to be loved; there must be the Dragon, who is a thing to be fought; and there must be St. George, who is a thing that both loves and fights. There have been many symptoms of cynicism and decay in our modern civilization. But of all the signs of modern feebleness, of lack of grasp on morals as they actually must be, there has been none quite so silly or so dangerous as this: that the philosophers of today have started to divide loving from fighting and to put them into opposite camps. [But] the two things imply each other; they implied each other in the old romance and in the old religion, which were the two permanent things of humanity. You cannot love a thing without wanting to fight for it. You cannot fight without something to fight for. To love a thing without wishing to fight for it is not love at all; it is lust. It may be an airy, philosophical, and disinterested lust… but it is lust, because it is wholly self-indulgent and invites no attack. On the other hand, fighting for a thing without loving it is not even fighting; it can only be called a kind of horse-play that is occasionally fatal. Wherever human nature is human and unspoilt by any special sophistry, there exists this natural kinship between war and wooing, and that natural kinship is called romance. It comes upon a man especially in the great hour of youth; and every man who has ever been young at all has felt, if only for a moment, this ultimate and poetic paradox. He knows that loving the world is the same thing as fighting the world.    

   I have been thinking on who Harry's "Princess" is that he was fighting for could be. You could say it was his love interest, Ginny, who fit this description, but I think it was more than that- much more. He was willing to leave Ginny for life for what he thought was right if he had to. No, he had his parents memory and their sacrifice, his friends and their sacrifices, and, encompassing all, love to fight for. He gave his life for Romance (How could a book embracing such Christian principles be satanic? Yes I know, that's another topic... ). 

   You may think I am stretching things: saying such things about Harry Potter (a tale with joke shops, the Chuddley Cannons, Hippogriffs, flying cars, remembrals, owl mail services, petrified kitties, etc) and connecting it to the Chesterton Quote, and all this talk of love, etc. But I tend to find connections everywhere for better or worse, and I am grateful for the comfort and even strength I find in little things such as stories. I find many things that connect back to the Chesterton quote, if not all things. Maybe I am overly simplistic, I am not sure. But while it is not advisable to underestimate evil, I think it is just as if not more tragic to underestimate the power of good. I know for my part I will take what I can, when I can- and I found much in Harry Potter. 

Excuse me... This muggle must go check her e-owls. (Couldn't resist) In the mean time, enjoy this fan video- I thought it was quite good. But be warned, it contains spoilers.

"The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death."

P.S. Ignore that last part about the Pope in the mtv link.... I truly believe there is more to that story, and I am not the only one. 

   Don't forget to check out  the Hogwarts Professor and Mark Shea's blog on the matter. God bless!

One Of Those Moments That Makes Everything Worth It

Last Weekend, a wonderful Priest, Fr. John Malloy of the Father's of Mercy, passed away. He was an Irish priest from Stanton Island, NY, who was always telling stories about his Irish New York City Cop of a dad who didn't tolerate no nonsense. He was a good man who never wanted to stop, and who wanted to "die with his boots on," and who blamed the poor nuns for keeping him from missionary work in the nursing home. Shortly after his 65th anniversary of being ordained to the priest hood, he passed away.
     Some time in the past few years, my Dad gave Fr. Malloy a print of one of my paintings from 2004. I remember thinking that I was glad he did it, but I wasn't sure how much good it did- Fr. Malloy's memory was deteriorating and I didn't know if he even remembered who I was, or if the painting would have any meaning to him at all. I think that the day we gave him the print was the last time I saw him alive.
      At the funeral, I had more than one person, including one of the nuns who took care of him, tell me that he actually was aware of the painting, that he was very proud of it, and that he had it with him within sight as he died. It was this painting that I did when I was about 15:

              It's funny. Things like this always happen when I am doubting whether I am called to study art at all. I have tried and tried and tried since I was about 6 (ok, 14) to get into art school, and it just refuses to work out- at least so far. In Austria (I studied abroad there for about 3 months with Franciscan University), this was a huge issue for me... There I was, on my last semester with Franciscan, about to graduate and leave my friends, go into the world, surrounded by AMAZING art in many forms, etc, and all I could think of was how I no longer felt called to study art, because 1), I had no way in sight to do it, and 2) because I felt I could never paint anything like the masters did- I could never paint anything that would make a difference or mean anything. But, during the weeks that were particularly hellish in this way (and that is hardly an exaggeration- art was my life), some little nun on campus in Austria would whisper in the chapel, "keep drawing," or, "can I see what you've drawn recently!?" (it's always nuns.... watch those nuns!)
      It's tough. You can't go to school to make yourself "useful," and you do blog posts of mice and spiders and dragons and Harry Potter. How on earth could God use that? And yet that's just it- I may be discouraged, but the fact is you just never know. The same day of the funeral, I read this in a little daily prayer book:
          
              "For those who love God, all things work together unto good." Rom 8:28


               Reflection: Those who love God are drawn nearer to the Father by every circumstance of daily life- joy brings them closer by ties of loving gratitude, and sorrow by the painful way of the Cross. 
               Those who do not love God become haughty and forget Him in the passing joys of this life and in sadness become bitter and desperate. 


               Prayer: "Lord, grant me Your true love. This is all I need."

This is why I LOVE BEING CATHOLIC SO MUCH! Jesus is good. As long as I strive to love and trust God more completely, to become a saint (A thought which nearly makes me laugh. Good thing God is ALL powerful.), everything is taken care of. I may have no idea what I am doing. I may not have known that a painting I did at 15 would mean so much to such a holy man during his last hours, but that didn't matter. I may never know of anything good I accomplish with my art ever again- but if I paint out of love, I can have complete confidence that it is doing something out there in time and eternity. St. Therese truly was such a gift. Her little way of trust in God's loving mercy applies to everything- so simple, yet all encompassing. I do not see how I could have made this far without her little way. If you have not read her Story of a Soul, fix that last year.
    
"Lord, grant me Your love. This is all I need."