The Honolulu Academy of Arts: Photo from sue96815.wordpress.com
Good Morning, God!
Yesterday I actually left home without my iPhone. A whole day without a photographic record! Hmm. But, perhaps, I have more snapshots stored in my mind because of that.
The exhibit of Yuan paintings at the Honolulu Academy of Arts was worth several mental images. One was of geese that I thought were flying in a line. Each goose was in a different pose — each one clearly an individual. I stared at them — delighted, but bothered. Birds in flight ought not to look that different. They looked as if they were engaged in a fanciful dance — not flight. And, a write-up I read later described the scroll as “a misty evocative environment” with some geese resting and some in flight. But they were all in a line . . . which did confuse me.
But, then I remembered what the exhibit had stressed. These master painters lived during the Mongol takeover of China. During this time many of the intelligentsia refused to work for the Mongol rulers. Instead they turned to the arts. Perhaps the geese “dancing in flight” were declaring their freedom — their independence — from foreign rulers?
That was a nice idea, God, but it seems this scroll was painted in the Southern Song period BEFORE the Mongols. So my “interpretation” no longer worked. How easy it is filter past events though our present mindsets. Perhaps the artist just enjoyed letting each goose do her own dance?
Still, I love the idea of “dancing in flight.” I see that in people around me. People, who in the face of adversity, laugh and dance and create. Not without tears, God. I think we should not live without tears. But, neither should we live without committing to the Dance of Life.
Story teller,
A Moment with God 
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