The Art of Living
APRIL 21, 2004 THE ART OF LIVING
Although the leukemia that tried so hard to kill me on various occasions throughout last year has gone into remission, I still make monthly visits for tests. I have twenty months of such trips to the lab, without a return of cancer cells, before I am considered to be in abstract remission. Abstract remission is a wonderful phrase; it simply means that, because of the original depth of my illness, and the frequency of my disagreements with physicians who told my wife I would die, any remission is considered improbable, and not likely to last.
The phrase has led me to see myself as an abstract work of art, and to realize that any life is a work of art. Human lives are self portraits with numerous, unintended elements: the winds of change blow a paint can over, and abruptly our canvas is spattered; there is an earthquake of great emotional magnitude, and the canvas topples, creating a smeared edge; there are periods of joy which lead to grand arcs of color, and there are periods of pain that show themselves in dark blacks and browns, sometimes ripping gauges in the portrait we are creating.
Some days I am Picasso, and my life is a cubic confusion of shapes and twisted embodiments of humanity, which delight and confuse me. Other days I am a Zen composition by Mark Rothko, rendered in simple colors and shapes that bring me peace. Even on darker days I am Pollock’s Lavender Mist: Number 1, 1950, with shades of lavender and white promise glimmering through the blackness.
I am preparing to return to my speaking work, road trips and audiences composed of artists whose life canvases have been shredded by the new, Global Community of terrorism. My intention is to grant everyone I meet a new understanding of how to control the palette of colors and shapes they use to create their self-portraits.
Finally, the way we choose to live our lives is the greatest artistic challenge we face. Should we choose shades of fear, misery, desire and egotism, we will leave behind an attic full of shame and death. If we work with the hues of altruism, community, humor, imagination and Divine Luck, we will leave a legacy of joy in the gallery of souls we have known and loved.
I wish you all the broad canvas of Light and Hope.
C.W. Metcalf