The Hammock Papers: Sacrifice.

19 September 2011

Sacrifice.

After so many years touring Arlington Cemetery with my family in honor of my father’s father, who was gravely wounded just days before the end of World War I, it was a rare privilege to stand next to the historic monument, which is beautiful at any distance. It was a high honor to meet and talk with the men who guard the Tomb of the Unknowns around the clock year-round, all members of the elite 3rd U.S. Infantry. In the middle of the night, as the conservators worked, it was clear to me that the men and women charged with guarding and conserving the Tomb of the Unknowns share a deep respect for the iconic monument and the ultimate sacrifice it represents.

The conservation efforts at the Tomb of the Unknowns are explained here ...

Read the rest at PreservationNation.

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MARCUS AURELIUS

"Is your cucumber bitter? Throw it away. Are there briars in your path? Turn aside. That is enough. Do not go on and say, 'Why were things of this sort ever brought into this world?' neither intolerable nor everlasting - if thou bearest in mind that it has its limits, and if thou addest nothing to it in imagination. Pain is either an evil to the body (then let the body say what it thinks of it!)-or to the soul. But it is in the power of the soul to maintain its own serenity and tranquility."

VINCENT van GOGH

"What am I in the eyes of most people? A nonentity or an oddity or a disagreeable person — someone who has and will have no position in society, in short a little lower than the lowest. Very well — assuming that everything is indeed like that, then through my work I’d like to show what there is in the heart of such an oddity, such a nobody. This is my ambition, which is based less on resentment than on love in spite of everything, based more on a feeling of serenity than on passion. Even though I’m often in a mess, inside me there’s still a calm, pure harmony and music. In the poorest little house, in the filthiest corner, I see paintings or drawings. And my mind turns in that direction as if with an irresistible urge. As time passes, other things are increasingly excluded, and the more they are the faster my eyes see the picturesque. Art demands persistent work, work in spite of everything, and unceasing observation."

DAN CAMPBELL