UNRELIEVEDLY TERRIBLE

The world has turned to unrelieved negativity and terror...hatred and random slaughter is everywhere....and freedom is on the run all over the world, although as yet it's not obvious to all, and few of the "free" have come to understand the danger.

It's soon to be Christmas time...and I ran across this image on the web. "The Holy Family with the infant St. John the Baptist ", by Michaelangelo is an unforgettable creation that we saw in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. This image doesn't do justice to the reality, which is so striking that of all the works of art I've ever seen, it is to me one of the most unforgettable.

Take this for what it's worth to you. If you choose, see it as a religious symbol of hope....or if you're not religiously inclined just as a beautiful painting.

For myself, I take this painting to represent the highest form of human resistance to the darkness of our collective history.

After centuries of the Dark Ages, the Italians of The Renaissance found within the human heart, its soul, and from it they recreated Western Civilization.

This painting is not nothing. It came from somewhere. It was conceived and then created by a man...a mere mortal...who found it somewhere within himself. It tells us that there is always that hope.

I fear we'll need it again.