"When Julius Caesar exhaled his last breath, he bequeathed approximately 1022 molecules to the atmosphere around him. Air leaving the lungs is 78 percent nitrogen, 16 percent oxygen, and 4 percent carbon dioxide—depleted in oxygen and enriched more than a hundredfold in carbon dioxide compared with what went in, due to human metabolism. Some of the carbon dioxide probably got trapped and digested by plants in a nearby garden, but the vast majority of the exhaled molecules began to fan out over an ever-widening area. Within a decade, that breath had dispersed completely around Earth, and most of it is still in circulation. Odds are, at least one of the molecules that Caesar (or Mozart or Martin Luther King, for that matter) relinquished when he died is flowing into your lungs as you read these lines."
As you were growing as a child, think of all the great, near great and unknown people who's molecules helped you grow. Think of all the bits and pieces that were woven together to make you who you are, who you will be. Let that thought grow.
41 comments:
Love the expanse to your interpretation of growth and what poetry :)
Well, I like that idea! Of course, that means we have to share with both the good and the evil ones. It's pretty cool though; we really are all one with the universe. All crunchy mysticism aside... this is a stunning image. It looks ancient and exotic.
Hey Anon ...thanks, I've been battling with the picture vs words parts of my brain. The gray matter wars. I thought I would get an old book that no one wanted and start painting up the pages... the problem is, I found one at the used book store, one that they were giving away for free. So far, so good yes? No. I got it home and I thought I would read a little of it out of respect for the author's words.... problem... the book is sly, funny and has subtle glimpses of life. Now I could never paint over the pages and I just want to paint illo's for the chapter headings... but that isn't what I started out to do...so I bought a tiny book about Angels for a quarter... it would be cool to make tiny paintings on those tiny pages...Perfect!!! Well... no...
Problem!!!
Heheh!
Carla, it seems that science, art and spirit are becoming more and more one to me. Thanks...the image too, is just bits and more bits.
Hhahaaa, that's a funny story! I collect some old books just so they aren't recycled in a material and 'spiritual' sense :) Your 'old' books are still being recycled in a creative way! It's all good :))
Lovely!!
I love this post and I am completely drawn in to the image. It really has a dynamic, hypnotic quality about it. Like one of those prints, when if I stare at it long enough, a 3-D image appears of a whale or something.
Thanks so much for popping in the other day. Great to hear from you. I feel like I am getting my mojo back after the many months of creative-juice depletion. Pregnancy was just not fun. Lots of new direction for me. And I am enjoying going through and catching up on everyone's blogs and seeing how much you have all GROWn!!!! Just like the old days. Aaaah, it feels good to be back.
Love the image and the text ... yes, molecular connection, I love it ;)
Anon, I guess so, but recycled is still taking up shelf space and kinda' look like more *&%@$ old books!:)))I was trying to find books that wouldn't be missed as books...but ...but!!ARGggg!
Hey Liz...Thanks!
Leezy!! I was afraid you wouldn't even remember me!Mojo is such great stuff, it's horrible when we lose it...the old "what if it never comes back question rears it's ugly head". But you know, it always does, just like the lost pup it is...next thing you know you have a wolf again:) I have to be honest though...I really did lose it for awhile this summer, and the worst part, at the time I didn't care.
I'm not sure if it is back but I'm starting to have fun again and I'm starting to care again too. Now if it doesn't come back, I plan to gnaw my arm off!!hehehe!
It does feel good to be back doesn't it, glad to see you again!Lets keep this creative revival up and going.
Kim hi! I loved your red autumn leaves...happy you have dropped in here to say hi...Thanks for your comment!
beautiful mandala-like image!I really appreciate all the details...Interesting writing as well: we all do something useful at last...
tnx for your comment
thanks for the comment on my halloween countdown. any ideas for the next days? :)
Thank you Anaku!It took me forever to get the drops just so. Not perfect but as perfect as I could get them:))) Yes with our last breath.
I remembered reading about the breath a long time ago, I sure was surprised
how easy it was to find a reference to it. My dear grandmother passed so so many years ago, and yet....
Ksklein... yes as a matter of fact I do ...
Dance Macbre
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psniDKk-wsw&mode=related&search=
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7v2so-XsEs&mode=related&search=
I wish I knew how to do a proper link:(
I found others...but I wasn't sure what you were looking for. These two are not too long and are nice mood pieces.
Cyanophytes or blue-greens were the highest form of life on earth for Millions and Millions of years and as luck would have it, their waste product was Oxygen.
They inadvertently created an atomosphere that allowed Life to crawl up on the land and eventually create characters like Julius Caesar...
and my favorite version of him was the portrayal in the BBC/HBO series ROME...
I watched all 22 hours in about a day and a half because it was so excellent...
so I am glad to see that I can literally share a little bit of History with the people who formed our world.
Believe it or not Homo Escapeons, I knew that from Carl Sagen's wife. They polluted the planet! Hehehe.
I'm glad to know there are others that watch marathon programs. My kid's and I are horrible for it. Love it when there is a new interest afoot!
Earth, what happens here, stays here! No one gets off, except maybe Gene Roddenberry...and he'll be back.
Wow!Fantastic stuff. I really respond to your work. Thanks for commenting on my blog as well, I'll be back for more visits.
Hi Eric, thanks, I felt the same way about yours! I could really relate..I think that is one of the coolest aspects about blogging, we get to find the people that are more like us than the people down the street. I truly know what it means to want to understand many mediums and speak oil as fluently as watercolor.
Woah! thats interesting...
Cool image and interesting idea. I love the idea of the interconnectedness of all life.
And just a wee bit creepy... how are you doing this fine spring/fall day?
Hi Andrea, that is so much of what you paint about. I always love those paintings where you have the bones and fossils under the earth with animals and trees on top.
Lovely thought. Lovely image. (You're good all around, you know?)
thanks for the links. i was looking for creepy or moody and strange stuff to post. any kind of pictures, animations, artwork, stories which somehow fit to my blog. :) so halloween stuff isn´t excatly what I´m looking for. just dark themes... etc.
That brought tears to my eyes.... such a sudden feeling of fullness, of possibility, of connection, of EXPECTATION. quite a jumble of emotions.
thanks for your comments on the dream blog... usually I only understand them obliquely - dreams (the good ones) seem to automatically have the the kind of layering and inference that always means more than it says - like the image, and your words here, do. So as I wake up I start re-writing them - - sometimes verbatim, but often with layers that are pulled free by them, but may not have been there while I was asleep. Odd process, and not very controllable. They come when they come.
Its really good to see your post. It's nice to see you moving forward especially with everything. But, one thing is for sure you are still creating intriguing work that still pulls the viewer in by the root and gets us growing with thoughts. :-) You like how I mixed that in. :-) Well, I love how the piece has such a mystical feel. It reminds me of the sky on a very clear night when you can really see the shine of the stars. Beautifully done.
what a great thing to think about! Love this mandala_like image with the beautiful colours and droplets! So good to hear from you and I am loving this post!
Tara, you darling girl!What a sweet thing you have done for me, Thank you so much! You are such a golden star in my stormy night sky.
Ksklein, I found dark and really creepy things, but I didn't know if that was what you were looking for. I made a list so I will go back and see if there is another link or two to send your way. I'll probably use one or two of the Halloween themed ones on my website...all in all, enjoyed the search as it was a good, moody, kick-off for the spooky season.
Hayden, hey we are the same age! I really was taken by your dream writings. they made me think of so many things! They helped bring on the winds of change that I'm feeling this week. Please come back and visit here, love to have you.
Wilnara what a cool comment,made me feel all misty-eyed!! I just love it when someone can read what I've cobbled together:)
HI VAL!!! You have really been in my thoughts this week! I wanted to let you know your cards survived the floods. I was so happy they ended up safe, it would have broken my heart if we'd lost them. My grand-daughter is only 5, but she is a tough little girly-girl. She loves your pretties...lord help her brothers if they look cross-eyed at your cards as she WILL punch them out!!!heheh
Beautiful thought.
I never thought of it in the sense that famous people are out there this way, but I am convinced somehow everybody's out there.
This is indeed an intriguing accompanying text that you have with that mysterious, yet stylised piece. It's great as it is so individual and eccentric. Sometimes, when I see some design work out there, it seems that people are copying from each other. Yours is original.
Good to see you back at this!
Merisi...yeah, but then you get to thinking about dog breath...heheh!
Thanks Chuang...what a very special thing to say:)
I've been by before, but you were one who dropped off the radar after the "crash" and I have only just found you.
Your footnote to the magazine piece is poetic and prophetic.It's an image I like very much.
Well Dinahmow..welcome back, just in time too as I'm just back also. Sorry to hear about your crash. That can really wreck your life can't it? My drives are getting to the place I'm starting to worry.
This reminds me of The Police song: "Every breath you take, I'll be watching you."
I, on the other hand wish that smiles were as easily spread around as a breath of fresh air.
Lovely post, L and beautiful mandala.
...every move you make,
check!
Time, time will bring the smiles Cream.
Thanks!
L
Beautiful image ldahl, like a deep calming pool of infinite possibilities.
However, you have me holding my breath...
Zooms...breathe!!!So did you get the tomato problem solved. Was it a pest or fungus?
What an extraordinary thought. I find it uplifting and bizarre at once. I am trying very hard not to think about the implications of all those hideous and horrendous diseases and ailments, plagues and afflictions of the ghosts of our ancestors down through all the dusty centuries, all still floating ghoulishly in the atmosphere, their molecules still on antique china or in the hair of a stuffed grizzly in the local museum! (insert spine tingle here). On the other hand it is giving me some interesting ideas for a whimsical/historical piece for a local radio programme, so thank you!
You're more than welcome A Kite Rises! You are a natural writer, every thing I've read of your's is filled with tasty bits.
Urban archaeologists dug into old garbage dumps... then they got sick. It seems the dumps had items/things of people who had died of cholera... the bacteria was still alive and waiting....
Happy Halloween,BbWwwahahahah!
Super mandala! Love it.
I've got star dust in me. Buts of the sky. Dead plants and tigers. Ground up diamonds. Creatures from under the sea. The breath or Merlin.
That should say bits of the sky but maybe I have some butts of the sky too. I don't want to go in the other direction with that.
Gosh, I can't type at all today, that should say the Breath OF Merlin. Aiieeee!
Thanks Mary! Can't type today? Oh that was sooo me yesterday! Couldn't spell either. Some days are just like that...remember that saying, washed my hands today and can't do a thing with them!
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