Awakening

And Man probably reveals more about me than it does the human condition, though I can’t separate myself from that condition, and wouldn’t care to if I could. I don’t want to see myself as something apart from everyone and everything else. If I’m lucky, I’ll rise as far as the condition allows, while it’s clear by this drawing I have already fathomed its depths. There’s a key element here: that I can imagine a world where such a facial expression does not exist, and where instead only gratitude and joy are revealed, means, in my mind, that it is truly possible. At the same time, that we can all understand, and therefore identify with, and, as a culture, even celebrate or applaud such an expression, prolongs the likelihood of clinging to the familiarity of that image, and to the suffering and sorrow it represents; that, in turn, delays our transcendence, thus postponing the most important realization of our lives. This is grand talk, I know, for a hairy old scribbler, whose only credentials are that of an amateur human being. At any time, though, the worldly tree depicted in this drawing might awaken and burst into bloom.

[ 1966 ]