Socrates

Socrates, quotes
I know nothing except the fact of my ignorance.

There is only one good, knowledge, and one evil, ignorance.

I am not an Athenian or a Greek, but a citizen of the world.

False words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil.

The unexamined life is not worth living for a human being.

You will know that the divine is so great and of such a nature that it sees and hears everything at once, is present everywhere, and is concerned with everything.

Having the fewest wants, I am nearest to the gods.

Bad men live that they may eat and drink, whereas good men eat and drink that they may live.

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Note: It is unknown whether Socrates was real, or simply an imaginary tool used in transmitting early philosophies. If real, then it is unknown just how real the image we have of Socrates is, or how far distorted from the source it has become. The image taken is from a bust of Socrates in the Louvre, edited by myself. The quotes are verified translations from surviving works attributed to the name Socrates.

Avarice

Title: Avarice
Artist: Peter Walkley
Museum: MONA (Museum of Nebraska Art)

In July of 2000, I found myself hitching thru Kearney, Nebraska. Most of the Midwest doesn't take too kindly to hikers. In Kearney, I found the opposite. I had a place to stay and a ride to the next town when I needed it. Despite the welcome, Kearney just didn't have much attraction to stay. They have an arch--that huge brown thing they've got drooped over I-80. Most truckers and travelers have driven under it and likely wondered what the heck it was. It's an arch. That's all it is. You can go inside it. Nice thing is, it's free... or was when I was there in 2k.

There's one other attraction--MONA. The Museum of Nebraska Art was free as well. They had me keep my backpack at the front, which was a relief and a fifty-pound weight off of my back. The collection of art was worth spending a lot of time taking in. My absolute favorite piece is shown above. The cat, perched on the very edge of the mantle piece, looks up at the bird cage that hangs from the ceiling... just out of reach. The angle helps accentuate the drop to the floor, which is what really stands in between the cat and the cage.

The painter, Peter Walkley, works for the Omaha World Herald in marketing. He inserts trace elements of surrealism into his paintings, adding a subtlety that particularly catches my own eye.

It is in thanks to Lexie, a photographer out of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, that I have access to this painting again. Her mad Google skills, along with my description, was enough for her to locate the painting online.