Years ago on a trip to Washington, D.C., I made it a point to visit our National Gallery of Art. I'd encourage you to give this impressive place a visit next time you're there.
I've always appreciated the creative side of human animals, believing it to be a definite connection with the creator.
I even briefly considered a career in art after high school. Having initially enrolled as an 18-year-old art major at the University of New Mexico, I soon reconsidered my shaky future at making a living in that craft and decided instead to try my hand at painting with words, paper and electrons rather than oils and pastels.
During that visit I marveled at so many outstanding pieces of captivating artwork. How did these people do this with such style and precision?
Then I happened across a series of four Christian-centered oil paintings by Thomas Cole, who in 1842 was a prominent American artist and creator of this inspired allegory of human existence he appropriately labeled "The Voyage of Life."
What struck most deeply was the insights Cole portrays in each scene of human existence that are as relevant in today's world as they were in centuries past.
The first painting depicts a joyful infant emerging in awe in a boat guided by his brilliantly lit guardian angel from a dark cavern on the river of life into the glorious light of a springtime world.
Then, as an ambitious youth, he takes control of the boat in his early summer of life bound for a distant shining castle on a mountain, as his guardian angel waves attentively from the shore.
In the throes of adulthood, his guardian still nearby, he has fallen to his knees in the boat as he relies on prayer and faith to sustain him through the rough waters of life.
He is now descending where, in the distance awaiting his arrival, is a glimpse of an ocean.
Finally, in the fourth painting, he has become an old man resting in the boat amid the tranquil sea; the angel who never left his side is reaching toward him to assist the man to heaven across the ocean of eternity.
I spent a good half-hour closely examining each scene while reflecting on Cole's insight. It's true we each emerge from darkness into the bewildering light and vivid colors of this strange world.
It's equally true that as young adults (male and female) we naturally become anxious to set sail for our futures and all the adventure and achievement that hopefully promises.
Cole reassures us the guardian angel that brought us from the darkness is always hovering nearby.
Then the storms and hardships of becoming an adult overtake each of us, and many of us find ourselves on our knees praying for assistance and guidance through the tumultuous rapids.
Finally, our guardian awaits in the glassy-calm ocean to take our extended hand into a glorious sky filled with divine radiance.
The series remains at the National Gallery, and another version of this masterpiece is kept at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Art Institute in Utica, N.Y.
Cole was a native of Britain who founded the Hudson River School of painting, which began as a group of open-air landscape artists working in and around the then-untouched wilderness of the Hudson River and northeastern states.
His "Voyage of Life" still rings inspirational and valid for many 180 years after he begin to imagine and complete it. You can get an idea of these remarkable paintings on the Internet.
Liberal world order?
The honesty darned near made me choke on my iced tea. Yet I witnessed the revealing statement with my own eyes and ears the other day.
Those who believe the Biden administration has our nation's best interests at heart with the economic and social problems we face today might have been enlightened to hear the president's economic adviser Brian Deese respond to a question on CNN about America's endlessly rising gasoline prices and the pain they are causing our citizens.
Deese confirmed that Americans will have to keep paying exorbitant prices for fuel because that's what's needed right now to benefit the "liberal world order."
Favoring the liberal world order as opposed to the benefit and welfare of Americans and the United States? When did our democratic republic vote to join this liberal world order?
Yet that's verbatim what Deese said: "This is about the future of the liberal world order and we have to stand firm."
Since when? Obviously since this clearly inept administration and its open hostility toward fossil fuels and our nation's fuel manufacturers assumed control.
I never expected a high-level official (much less an adviser to the president) would openly admit to such un-American priorities on national TV.
The entire nation owes Deese a debt of gratitude for publicly sharing what's actually behind so many destructive decisions being made inside our White House today.
50 added cents?
A friend from Harrison wondered the other day why he was able to find gasoline in northwest Arkansas for $3.99 a gallon when it was about $4.50 a gallon back home. Responses?
Mike Masterson is a longtime Arkansas journalist, was editor of three Arkansas dailies and headed the master's journalism program at Ohio State University. Email him at [email protected].