Friday, April 10, 2009

Tree by Martin


I figured a tree would be appropriate on Good Friday, since that was the day Our Lord was nailed to one. This particular tree is a portrait of Cousin Jim. Martin did it after Jim came in one day about forty years ago screaming "The trees have inspired me." He had been depressed and upon seeing an oak just standing there taking what it needed from the sky and the soil and not fretting, had a satori experience. Martin started calling Jim "Tree," and everyone else followed suit for the rest of the year, and some to this day. Martin & Jim are older, but pretty much the same in a lot of ways.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Virg. Was cousin Jim and Martin hippies? Was they doing anything that might alter their perception of their surroundings? Just curious.

Virgil said...

I wonder if that's why the tree sorta looks like a mushroom cloud. Martin & Jim was good ole boys, never meanin no harm, but were a little differnt.

James Bruce McMath said...

Depression,expression,impression inspired.

Altered perception, has not had a good reception but in slowing time it alters conceptions and allows things to be seen, as scary as they maybe, as they really are and not as they seem.

(You see, the human mind has the ability to understand and percieve reality. However, doing so is destabilizing. sanity is the result of a hardwared mental filtering process that allows a "normal" person to maintian "rational" stable function in the midst of what is the terrifying reality of a mortal life and the competitive social and economic structure involved in survival.)

An occational vacation to alter perception is an adventure most can stand but living there, like NYC, I can't understand.