Healing the Sick
all Children should have the benefit of healthcare
Joaquin Sorolla "Triste Herencia"
(from Dickens)
From the foldings of its robe, it brought two children; wretched, abject, frightful, hideous, miserable. They knelt down at its feet, and clung upon the outside of its garment.
``Oh, Man! look here. Look, look, down here!'' exclaimed the Ghost.
They were a boy and girl. Yellow, meagre, ragged, scowling, wolfish; but prostrate, too, in their humility. Where graceful youth should have filled their features out, and touched them with its freshest tints, a stale and shrivelled hand, like that of age, had pinched, and twisted them, and pulled them into shreds. Where angels might have sat enthroned, devils lurked, and glared out menacing. No change, no degradation, no perversion of humanity, in any grade, through all the mysteries of wonderful creation, has monsters half so horrible and dread.
Scrooge started back, appalled. Having them shown to him in this way, he tried to say they were fine children, but the words choked themselves, rather than be parties to a lie of such enormous
magnitude.
``Spirit! are they yours?'' Scrooge could say no more.
"They are Man's,'' said the Spirit, looking down upon them.
"And they cling to me, appealing from their fathers. This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased. Deny it!'' cried the Spirit, stretching out its hand towards the city.
``Slander those who tell it ye! Admit it for your factious purposes, and make it worse! And bide the end!''
I've many wishes of GOOD Tidings to bestow on you all-I've been beseeched by readers to snap out of the morose Dickens story postings-and show some pretty decorating pictures-Oh my dears-there is plenty of time for pretties! I've also received praise-this I take lightly, but with gratitude.
As with ALL things Little Augury-I follow my heart and my own lead-beholden to none. I shall Endeavor to Keep it that way-Just as I keep Christmas. If ever there was a time to reflect-to remember-what's been done by oneself-and MAN ( Man has reams to answer for) it is Christmas.
Just Ask Dickens-
“I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me."
Charles Dickens puts the year & Christmas in perspective as no other.
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I was on my way downtown this afternoon to find the ingredients for fruitcake in Little India, and passed at least 10 homeless persons along the way. Morose? No. Need is before us all. Do we stop to see it? Do something about it? That's the question. The answer lies in action. Consistent, persistent action. On that score, I just read of a city (Phoenix) that places homeless veterans in housing first before anything else. It works. Never mind the rest. But we don't think of this first, do we on a national scale? No. Our puritanical nation thinks helping those in need is somehow enabling them. We are all the more foolish for thinking so. Morose? No my dear. You have a conscience.
ReplyDeletehttp://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/12/23/3099911/phoenix-homeless/#
The last image of Mother and Child...I was stunned upon learning of her age, in her mid 30s! Born into a life of comfort, married to a gambler, then cast onto the Mercy of Passerby's when her husband left her with the child. Her whole existence now caught forever in a Prism - in a dark facet - eternally speaking without words with just her pose of the utmost hopelessness for us to know that what was once...still IS!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Gaye. We are all so incredibly blessed. It's a time to be thankful--I'm so incredibly thankful for all of your pushes and shoves that make me question and search.
ReplyDeleteEach and every one of us could be poor or destitute and homeless-- we are simply blind to much of reality.
Christmas Blessings and can't wait to see what's up your sleeve for next year.
Howard's book arrived yesterday. A feast of incredible beauty. Thank you so much.
xoxo Mary
That's one of my favorite paintings by Sorolla. It never fails to move me.
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to your posts in 2014.