We have been privileged to experience the work of many masters during our continuing journey around the globe. The skills of these masters, some long dead while others still in their prime, are shattering. The designers of Machu Picchu, the Colosseum and the Burj Khalifa must have been built with equal parts know how, confidence and ambition. Michelangelo's Rome is filled with many examples of his mastery. His sculptures, paintings and buildings bowled us over. So much beauty and so much talent.
Some masterworks we have taken on the road with us. I've begun a poetry appreciation class with the kids. I can't say that the idea was initially well received, but poems like John McCrae's 'In Flanders Fields' are making the task a little easier. As a side note, he wrote the poem while sitting in the back of an ambulance in Ypres, 1915. Supposedly, he thought the poem was unworthy, threw it away and later had to be convinced to submit it for publication. I wonder how many uncertain others have produced masterworks. I wonder how many other brilliant works never see the light because their creators or others around them thought the work unworthy.
Maeve and Liam are currently listening to Pip's story from 'Great Expectations.' Watching their mom work through the story with them and sharing in the brilliance of Dickens' work is to witness two masters at one time. We enjoy modern masters as well including everything that Sarah Coglianese has to write (click here for Sarah's blog).
There is another kind of masterwork. Work born of necessity, but performed with dignity, grace and skill. We have been grateful recipients of much of this kind of masterwork from street food vendors, long-haul bus drivers, and many others. We have witnessed supreme examples of this sort of masterwork in those who devote themselves to the betterment of others as our many friends in Tanzania do. In my view, a true masterwork goes beyond any need for understanding. It just resonates into everything. It's these vibrations that we feel at every level and they let us know that we should take note.
