The great British sculptor, Henry Moore, said, “The secret of life is to have a task, something you devote your entire life to, and the most important thing is -- it must be something you cannot possibly do”

Reclined Woman with Child, by Henry Moore

   Upon first reading the quote above by Henry Moore, I wondered what the hell he could possibly mean by such a ridiculous and illogical statement. It took a few years to sink in, to get past all the logic-on-steroids and toxic social conditioning of my younger years, in order for me to be able to find personal relevance. Henry Moore was an artist and to find sense in his quote I had to think like an artist.

    My life -- our lives -- are tapestries woven as we go along on our journey to the Great Beyond. We take the threads attached to dreams, goals, beliefs, feelings, traumas and tawdry stories, and even other people -- from those connections that anchor us to life. Then we weave the story of our journey. Each tapestry unique, as every journey is unique.

    Some tapestries are worthy of hanging in a museum. Others could grace a wall in a stately mansion, or look right at home next to the Elvis painting on black velvet. A pathetic percentage lie in a heap on a floor in a forgotten nowhere, threadbare with holes and stained with an unsung life’s many mishaps.

    My art is weaving, then. I am conscious of the many threads of my existence. Looking back at what I have woven so far, I see that in my heart and soul, the core of my being, I have wanted only to transcend to a state in which I would be welcome to live in a civilization of beings so advanced that they had long ago conquered war and fear and hatred, abandoning the behavior of jealously tearing down those with ability, of enslaving the weak. Beings whose idea of community would be where each member supported and encouraged every other member in the endeavor to improve, to learn, to create. To become.

    There are few role models here. What are the criteria defining such a citizen? So my goal is impossible because I will never know if I reach it. I strive to attain an unidentifiable, non-definable state of existence.

    I cannot imagine doing anything else.