Blog for July 26th, 2021
The adventures of the week were pretty much good this week. Dinner for the first time in a long time with some old friends, since before Covid hit. It was great to visit and chat in person with them. Our friend has forty years of sobriety and he was a huge part of my early recovery days. He is blind and therefore he was pretty much always home when I was new and we talked a lot. He taught me a great deal about recovery, marriage, men, life. I appreciate him so much.
Then the day of Van Gogh finally came. I bought tickets to go to see the Van Gough exhibit about four months ago when I first seen it advertised. They didn’t have any real Van Gogh paintings there, it was more like an experience, an exhibit in fluid projector images. I have seen real Van Gogh’s when I visited the Louvre in Paris and the National Museum of Art in London. I bought the Sunflower print and the Lilly’s. This time I got the Starry Nights, so cool.
The pictures were projected onto the walls, floor and structures placed around the large room. It was just cool they way they did it. But what struck me the most this time was his selfies- as I call them. His Self-Portraits and he has a few. I was looking at his eyes, trying to get a feel for how he was feeling and what he might have been thinking. See, Vincent is one of us! I mean, dude cut off his ear because he got in a fight with this buddy Gauguin. Kinda of emotional eh. He was way alcoholic and once, he checked himself into an sanitarium, so what does that tell you?
Yep, family. He’s one of us. It’s just sad that this tormented painter didn’t get famous until after he was dead. Seems to be the way of it actually. But he had a brother, Theo, who was the one who encouraged him to paint and it also took care of him financially most of his life. Theo was younger than Vincent, but he seemed to have acted more like the older, wiser brother.
I once read an article about a psychologist that did a profile on some famous dead people. Like Hitler, Beethoven, Tesla, Stalin, Lincoln and others. I’m sure we could just look at their upbringings, life and figure out where they were “coming from”. Even the richest, smartest and most famous people in the world have some kinds of issues. Addiction is more common than you think. It’s recovery that is a harder to come by.
I wonder why that is? On our way down to the exhibit my friend told me she didn’t really know much about Van Gogh, so I told her about the ear thing and sanitarium and drunkenness’ and how he killed himself at 37. She ask me why ( as if I was there) but just like those people that profiled the famous dead people, so did I. I told her, “because he needed a meeting and there wasn’t any”. She was like “oooohhhh”. Yep, family
At that point she became real interested in him too. Lol – like minded people, that’s for sure. Well, I tell you what, I am so grateful that Bill W. Dr. Bob and Jimmy K came around before me and got things all set up! Because when my hour of need came, I had a place to go. We all do, we do not have to suffer, we do not have to cut off our ears and heaven forbid, we do not have to kill ourselves. So unnecessary. There is help and hope available to us all. You just gotta want it.
Vincent Van Gogh is not the only one who one who suffered/suffers from addiction or mental illness . We have way too many people sleeping on sidewalks, under bridges and in parks in the cold and the heat. People who are displaced from family and friends. If only they could get up and go to a meeting. If only they could find the willingness to reach out and get help. There are indeed resources galore, especially compared to the 1800’s in Van Gogh’s day. The homeless and hurting people on the streets are “family” too.
I believe Vincent Van Gogh would have latched onto recovery in a heartbeat. I think that because he is the one that checked himself in the sanitarium, or as I call it, “treatment”, he wanted help. He was a very passionate and emotional man, yet, down to earth. Why do I say that? Because of his paintings of the simple life, workers in the fields and flowers, wheat, nature and natural things. Ordinary, hard working people.
But, just like we tend to do, he got into himself, into self-pity. Why do I say that? Because he painted about five “selfies” during his last year of life. He was so focused on himself with a “woe is me” attitude, drinking himself to death.
Man, I’m grateful. Grateful that we have so much opportunity for help and recovery in our life. Kinda makes me want to draw a picture or work my program! 😊
Question of the Week: Do you notice “family” out on the streets? What are we doing for them?
Such a good question this week, how thought provoking, I would love to say I run up and ask them if they want help, I have a friend who does that now, goes out to them and asks if they would like some help. My friend is one of us, with about 5 years clean and its what he does for a job, its hard for him he says, I would think so too, I see my children in each of the people on the streets, sick and suffering. mostly I smile and look them in the eye, let them know I see them suffering. My son told me once, when we passed a young guy, asking for money, how hard it is to do that, I could see it affected my son deeply, mainly cause My son used to panhandle people didnt see him after awhile they looked past him, and that hurt me, my son didn’t have much money but he gave the man what he had, and it reminded me to be loving, I remember the sting and sometimes when I see “family” I remember to be kind to be loving and to help when I can, and I listen to my heart and I can hear when God moves me and do what I can. (This kinda hurts my heart)
Hey you! Good to hear from you, somewhere. You have a soft, caring heart and you definitely passed that down to your children, which I consider a good thing. Thank-you for your feedback. Can’t wait to connect with you sometime. Love you