voyage of life

 

“In childhood there is no cankering care; in Youth no despairing thought. It is only when experience has taught us the realities of the world, that we lift from our eyes the golden veil of early life: that we feel deep and abiding sorrow.” ~Thomas Cole, artist statement, Manhood, The Voyage of Life

One of my favorite spots in DC is standing in the center of Thomas Cole’s epic 4 panel “Voyage of Life” painting. It’s like meeting an old friend who convinces you to waver away from the jaded end of the young/idealistic – aged/cynical spectrum. 

this side of paradise, part II

“Utility is when you have one telephone, luxury is when you have two, opulence is when you have three – and paradise is when you have none.”

— Doug Larsen

“I would say my theme has always been paradise lost, always the lost cause, the lost leader, the lost utopia.”

— Marguerite Young

“Anything that lives where it would seem that nothing could live, enduring extremes of heat and cold, sunlight and storm… testifies to the grandeur and heroism inherent in all forms of life. Including the human. Even in us.”

— Edward Abbey

“I’m a romantic; a sentimental person thinks things will last; a romantic person hopes against hope that they won’t.”

— F. Scott Fitzgerald, This Side of Paradise