I have been to Rome several times and visited have visited the Vatican and the Sistine Chapel three times. The staggering amount of art that is molded into the walls and ceilings of the Vatican is something like walking through the pages of a comic book, as if you were the size of a pea. You are surrounded by it, covered up by it and frankly it is overwhelming. To take in all of that art you would have to live there, be a monk and do nothing but that for an entire lifetime.
Art is not art, art is symbolism, because we can’t avoid placing meaning into everything we do as humans. The history of Christianity and religion in general is shrouded in symbolism, for several reasons.
Regardless of how you look at it, the Roman occupation of Judea was a problem for Judeans, as it was for all conquered peoples. Clearly, anyone wanting to take back their country would be an enemy of Rome so they had to communicate in code. The symbol of the fish is an example of this, because of it’s ambiguity the fish, which was a major food source and occupation, could be represented easily without suspicion, but recognized also by those who understood the symbol as meaning being a Christian.
The symbology in the Bible is vast, and I’m not here to discuss it per se, but just to say that the reason the Bible seems so contradictory in itself is that much of it actually was meant to mean something other than what the words were actually saying, and that the only people to be able to understand it, were those who knew the code. This isn’t a conspiracy theory, it was simply necessary in the day to do this and be able to stay alive.
More than anything, everything expressed is in code. Just as the word “water” written on a piece of paper isn’t actually water itself, so is every other word, picture, sound created by the human hand. The meaning actually can’t be be expressed, you can only give an idea about what it means.
Helen Keller did not know a single word or even knew words existed until she was 7 years old. She had no way to identify things. Therefore, to her water couldn’t be defined any other way except with water itself.
When you visit the Sistine Chapel and hear the story about Michelangelo and his work on the magnificent ceiling, you learn that he completed a couple of panels and then had them take down all of the scaffolding so he could see what it looked like from the floor. He realized the figures he was painting were too small to be recognized from the floor, so he knew to scale up the size of his work.
If you don’t step back and take a good long look at what you are doing, you are avoiding the main point of your actions, and that is…what is life about? What picture am I trying to paint? Who am I as an artist? When people look at me what do they see? Who do I see in me at a distance?
We get caught up in the details of life. We paddle the boat paying attention about the paddling and pay no attention to where the boat is actually going, and where the ocean we are paddlng in is located in the vast scope of life.
Maybe it is time to take down the scaffolding, take a step back, relax the mind and really cast an eye over the whole project and see what is happening and what there is to do to make it understandable from a distance.
We often have a vision, work on the vision and then fail to see if that vision is getting fulfilled as we envisioned it. Otherwise, you can spend a lifetime, working on something that makes no sense when you look back at it after completion. Michelangelo’s ceiling would have been a failure had he not stepped back and looked at it from afar. But because he did, his work will endure forever.
In the end, the only thing that is going to matter is if we fulfill the true destiny we have in our hearts and that is something nobody can give to you, you can’t even give it to yourself, it is there already and it is the most powerful you.
As I write this, I am of course saying all of this to myself and know it to be true.
I am writing this on an Empower Network blog. It is mine. I own it. I could have written it on a piece of paper, or on a word processor, but here my thoughts and ideas can be catalogued for future reference and maybe benefit others.
The point is, the Empower Network is by self admission not the goal, it is a way to make the most of who you are deep inside, in the heart so that the world can benefit from your experience.
I realize that my greatest asset is my heart because in it resides the wealth of the universe. It is that way for everyone. The true gift in life is to share that heart with the world.
Go forth and create. The words, pictures and sounds are mere symbols to tranpose the messages of the heart as accurately as possible. If you don’t think the world is waiting for you, think again..it is.