Timeout for Art – Reflections from a Bamboo Cabaña

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einstein quotes, Timeout for Art, watercolor

Who created this artifact? Man? Woman? Several People? What purpose did it serve? How many generations lived and died before this artifact was discovered?  Did they have complex language skills?  Who found the artifact, or was it looted from a grave or washed downriver? Who steered it into the museum’s collection so that I could one day admire and study it?    (Watercolor Study — Artifact from Museo Bahia de Caraquez/Ecuador)

“Strange is our situation here upon earth. Each of us comes for a short visit, not knowing why, yet sometimes seeming to a divine purpose. From the standpoint of daily life, however, there is one thing we do know: That we are here for the sake of others…for the countless unknown souls with whose fate we are connected by a bond of sympathy. Many times a day, I realize how much my outer and inner life is built upon the labors of people, both living and dead, and how earnestly I must exert myself in order to give in return as much as I have received and am still receiving.”
― Albert Einstein, Living Philosophies

This quote from Einstein’s Living Philosophies prompted me to pause and consider my life, the lives of my friends and loved ones and the casual strangers we meet each day.     I pondered every man-made article  ‘built upon the labors of people both living and dead’  in the room around me.  I wondered about the nameless people that affected my particular point in life at this very moment.  Who whacked the bamboo that now serves as the walls of this cabanya?  Was the hard work of construction mixed with sweat and shared laughter as the workers saw the vision take form?

Working hard or hardly working?!

I wondered about the person that cut the trees and the one who planed the boards and the one that drove the truck that delivered materials to the construction site.  I chuckled as I pondered the mathematical challenge of designing the ladder that stretches from the first floor to the upstairs sleeping loft.

Plumbago

I know the lady who most likely planted the flowers that bloom outside the door, and for sure she planted them with love.  Who provided the parent plants of the cobalt-blue plumbago?  Were they first planted in her mother’s yard, an hour’s drive into the campo?  Were they a gift from a friend that brought cuttings along with a few lemons and plantains?   My head rests on a pillow that someone stuffed with lumpy cotton that was most likely grown in nearby fields…

I thought about the contrast between the old-fashioned lifestyle on the farm vs the wonders of modern technology that allow me to write and share this with people all over the world.   Who installed the technology in this town that connects this computer to the wifi router, and the router to the provider and the provider to the the invisible network of signals that crisscross our globe?  Who are the unseen people that work in high tech jobs so that I may reap the magic of obtaining vast libraries of information through the click of a ‘search’ button.  I pondered my frustrations with slow connection speeds, though marveled that I no longer need to visit a library in order to broaden my knowledge about a particular subject – any subject!

My brain received a creative workout thanks to the Einstein quote!

I marveled that I could spend the rest of my life spinning creative stories about the faceless and nameless people who have touched my life and helped shape the quality of each day.

I finally shook these thoughts from my head, read a bit more and reminded myself to pull this post together and get on with my day!   Today I will ponder the unseen cast that came before and have an affect on this unique moment in time and this GPS coordinate on the planet.   I will also wonder what traces we’ll leave behind that will affect those in our wake.

May we strive to leave only positive footprints.

 The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed. — Albert Einstein

“Do not grow old, no matter how long you live. Never cease to stand like curious children before the Great Mystery into which we were born.”
― Albert Einstein

“I think 99 times and find nothing. I stop thinking, swim in silence, and the truth comes to me.”
― Albert Einstein

 

The final quotes gave me great smiles, and I hope that they make you smile as well!  I’m not sure if the last one was actually said by Einstein or not, but it makes an appropriate ending for this post!

“There are two important things for full success in life:

1. Don´t tell everything you know.”
― Albert Einstein

“The only reason for time is so that everything doesn’t happen at once.”
― Albert Einstein

“Never argue with an artist.”
― Albert Einstein

Thank you for your beautiful response to yesterday’s post about Barbara Beacham’s death. She would be greatly touched and humbled to know that her life had a positive effect on people she never knew.

May we live so that others are grateful for our token roles on this stage of Life.
Z