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Painting by Johannes Bjorner ©
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If we look at the existence of mankind in the context of space and time, we wonder why are we here, where do we come from, and where are we going.
It is sad that, at the threshold of incredible advances in science that might benefit humanity we are also at the threshold of incredible advances in weapons that can destroy humanity.
Are we bound for self destruction, destined to become one more of natures failed experiments, or can we, using all the information available to us, and with a deep look within ourselves, understand how to change the course towards self destruction in which we are headed?
Our soul is trapped in a body which constantly issues commands to our brain, eat, sleep, fight,kill, flee, procreate, etc. In the darkness of our body the soul is the light that also issues commands to our brains.
Which of these commands we listen to and when we do it, has a profound impact on our life and that of others. Do we move toward the darness or toward the light.
The commands that our body issues are part of the primordial history of humankind and the subsecuent evolution.
The emerging light
During the World War II I was a small boy, living with my parents and older sister in a small village in the Danish island of FYn. Denmark was occupied by the Germans. It was a colorless time with freezing winters (and houses). We would often spend the evening listening to my father reading stories from authors like the storyteller Hans Christian Andersen, born on thet same island. When he was not reading stories, my father would tell episode from his childhood in Copenhagen in the early part of the 20th century. I loved to hear those stories and begged him to tell me more stories from his childhood. I remember many of those stories, and now I undestand what a man was father was.
He was a very sensitive and creative person, that did not work to his advantage as a child.
One story I remember was when he told me about his religion teacher. The children had to memorize part of the Catechism, they might have memorized it well, but when comfronted with the feared teacher veything was forgotten. The punisment was swift. The teacher placed a cube of sugar on the floor and told the poor child to lower his pants and then bend down and pick up the cube. When the child was bending down the teacher would say three words: Good-IS-Love, for every word the teacher would strikke the childs bottom ,as hard as he could, with a rod.
Extreme pain and humillation, he was indeed going to make good christians out of those children.
The child would also get a note to take home for his parents to sign!
My grandfather was a very stern man, when my father came home with such a note, my grandfather, enraged, used his own rod to teach his child to do better in school.
This way of teaching would be unheard of today in the civilized world, but was not uncomon in the beginning of the 20th century.
It is often said, that a child that is abused will often abuse his own children, but might father never abused me.
He was a sensitive man who loved music and litterature, the light had illuminated his sould, so that compassion and emphaty were stronger than his rage.
Later in life, I saw for my self, how art can develop compassion and empathy.
Art always an important part of my life (See: http://phoserebus.blogspot.com.es/ ).
In the 80thies i began exhibiting my paintings in art feativals in the USA, usually there held in parks, or sometimes on the streets sidewalks.
When all this was new to me i would ask other artist exhibitting the paintings - What if somebody wants to buy one of your paintings and whishes to pay with a check, would you accept it?-.
That was a reasonable question, as most businesses would accept a check for payment.
All the artist I asked gave me the same answer- No problem, of course I would accept a check, I have never recieved a check that bounced. Extraordinary! And while there are exceptions to eveything, Most people with the sensitivity to buy a work of art, also had the emphaty to not wanting to svindle an artist.
Another experience were from the many art workshops I attended in the USA, clearly there were beginning and more experienced artists. When we worked with our paintings in the class, the class enthusiasm was more than the sum of the parts. We became almost euforic. There was no feeling of competition, we were together in this journey of joy and love for painting. When we took a break to see what the other participants were doing, we would marvel at some of the paintings and enjoy the creativity and feeling that they exposed, without any feeling of envy.
Some readers might say - yes emphaty in sensitive people is not hard to understand, but what about people who do not have that sensitivity and emphaty?
In Steve Pinkers book The Better Angels of our Nature, he gives many well documented examples of how the civilized world has developed greater emphaty over time.
There are many compelling examples in his book, to quote a few:
Comparing the books in 1948 dealing with a particular issue, as a percentage of the books in the year 2000 dealing with that same issue, yields some interesting results.(See graph in Steve Pinkers book on page 380)
For example, the percentage of books dealing with civil rights where a little over 40 % in 1948 of books the books in 2000 dealing with civil rights, and stayed fairly flat until 1960 when they started increasing until reaching the level of the year 2000. Womans rights were in 1948 little over 20% of the level in 2000.
Staying mostly fat until the late sixties when the began taking off.
The percentage of books on childrens rights in 1948 where less that 10 % of the 2000 leveland stayed mostly flat until the aerly sixties.
Gay rights near 0% until 1970 when they began to increase.
Animal rights near 0% until around 1960 when the number of books increased dramaticly.
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