I live in Rochester, NY, now. Yes, I'm a snob about cities. I commuted to New York City for 25 years, then I lived in Paris for a year, Barcelona for 3 months, Brooklyn for four years.
Rochester does not have the cache of any of those cities.
But it can be an amazing place.
It hosts the world's longest running international film festival, and it's the only film festival that provides feedback and critique to each filmmaker.
It houses the world's largest collection of American classic films. That's because Kodak is based here, and most of the American classics were filmed in Kodak film.
It hosts a long-running international jazz festival.
And it has an interesting art museum.
It recently hosted an exhibit of Egyptian sculptures that had been chipped away at -- mutilated.
The exhibit was full of fragments of statues. I find fragments more interesting than whole things.
These sculptures were attacked thousands of years ago because the ancient Egyptians believed that statues of kings had inherent power, that they actually embodied the spirit and authority of each king. When they wanted to malign a king's reign and legacy, they chipped off the royal symbols on a statue -- the upright cobra on the headdress, the stripes on the headdress, the royal beard. They chipped off the eyes or nose so the spirit of the king couldn't see or breathe.
Fragments of statues are like my life. I started out whole (I think--don't children start out undamaged? a tabula rasa, a blank slate?) and then life happened. Plans and desires and longings went unfulfilled. I ended up with just a fragment of what I thought I wanted. And what I wanted was very much shaped and inspired by being an American, being brought up in times when it seemed like the sky was no limit.
I wanted lots of money from my writing, lots of travel, a big house to float through.
What I got was different. It's a fragment of my big, big American dream.
So now I'm sorting among my fragments, among the things that remain. Thank God I have my health, I have a growing sense of God's love for me, I have a family here in Rochester to spend happy time with, I have my driving desire to write--to connect with people, to give people something worthy and nourishing to think about.
What are your fragments? What remains of your hopes and dreams?
What's driving you these days? Want to make some art? Leave something behind?
Perhaps take some inspiration from these ancient fragments:
Here's another post of mine that involve fragments:
Bits of sculptures and architectural details in Providence, RI
Isn't the face above beautiful? Let's make something beautiful today. Comment below!
