Take the Voyage of Life

Take The Voyage of Life!

 Thomas Cole (c. 1842) came from the Hudson River School of Painting and created the Voyage of Life series.  With four enormous canvasses, Cole depicts childhood, youth, manhood (i.e. womanhood), and finally old age and death.  Each picture tells the story with changes in the landscape, the age of the traveler, and angels.  In the National Gallery of Art, they are displayed in a circular room—not in a linear line—to suggest the timeless theme of “the circle of life.”  If you want to get ahead of my posts, go ahead and google “Voyage of Life” and take a look at the pictures.  You might want to do that anyway as you seek to use each frame to take a look at your life at a particular stage—either a stage where you have been, are, or will be. The theme of this blog is learning to tell our stories through different mediums, writings and reflections.  (You can purchase a set of these prints through the National Gallery of Art.  They make wonderful background for computer screens.)  

 

Background:

Cole develops the birth of the infant and child on a tranquil river symbolizing life--the river that ran through Eden.  The angel guides the boat, representing its divine image and origin.  A new day dawns to show forth the new birth. If you look very, very closely--there is an hour glass in the wooden angel's hands on the front of the boat. The infant may have come trailing clouds of glory of kairos, God's time, but now enters the chronos of linear time.  

Reflection:   

In what way do we believe in the divine origin of our birth.  It makes a difference what we believe about who we are--products of random selection or made in the image of God.  (There is room to believe that we arrived randomly, yet still bear the image of God.)  The point is that what we believe about ourselves says a lot about our sense of purpose and ambition in life.  Look how Wordsworth developed this theme in "Intimations of Immortality," as we come from afar trailing clouds of glory." As he misses it, the search for immorality within life and nature becomes a purpose in his life.  it is the very search itself which points to his "intimations." 

 

				536. Ode Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood

THERE was a time when meadow, grove, and stream,
The earth, and every common sight,
To me did seem
Apparell'd in celestial light,
The glory and the freshness of a dream.	5
It is not now as it hath been of yore;—
Turn wheresoe'er I may,
By night or day,
The things which I have seen I now can see no more.
There is a fountain of youth: it is your mind, your talents, the creativity you bring to your life and the lives of the people you love. When you learn to tap this source, you will have truly defeated age. Sophia LorenItalian Actress and Film Star