Girl With A Pearl Earring

I was on Facebook today and one of my Facebook “friends” posted this photo of a famous painting: 

You’ve seen this painting.  It’s called ‘Girl With A Pearl Earring’ and was painted around 1665 by Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer.  But wait, the girl in this painting is wearing jeans and modern shoes.  And look there; hanging over the table, that’s a modern looking light fixture!   Another weird thing: sitting against the wall under this table is what looks like an aluminum chest.  Wow, I thought, this couldn’t be the original…what a great Photoshop job!   I know I’ve seen this painting in person, though it was many years ago.  I’d better go on-line and look at the original again.  And I found this:

You’ve got to be kidding me.  This can’t be right!

Eventually I found it:

This is a photo of Vermeer’s original painting.   Just beautiful.  But my memory sucks.

This got me thinking back to one of those simple questions I wrote about in my first post on this blog and that question is:  Who am I?  Part of who I think I am, sometimes, is stored in that junkyard of memories- the empty space between my ears.  Wasted storage.  Refuse. Garbage.  And I base much of who I think I am on this trash?

Haha…I don’t actually believe this.  I think I know better now.  I don’t always fall into this pit.  I know that’s not who I am even though I forget it at times and react to things or people based on those faulty memories…or emotions.  Sometimes I catch myself.  I’m learning.  I’m my own thought policeman and I’ve issued myself hundreds of tickets.  The fines can be punitive though.  My transgressions are punished severely by my friends and family.  I issue apologies.  Sometimes they are accepted, sometimes not.  Sometimes I forget who I am when I’m talking to people, and they forget who they are. The combination is a problem.  Trouble brewing.  We all need to pay more attention to who we really are…if just to avoid the fines.

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BTW:  The ‘Girl With a Pearl Earring’ is also known as:  ‘The Mona Lisa of the North’.  It is 17.5 inches long and 15 inches wide- a bit smaller than Leonardo da Vinci's ‘Mona Lisa’.  I love what humorist Dave Barry said of the Mona Lisa, finally seeing it in person after many years of anticipation:  “Hey, where’s the big Mona Lisa?”

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You can see Vermeer’s ‘Girl With A Pearl Earring’ in person until June 2, 2013 at the de Young Museum in San Francisco.  http://deyoung.famsf.org

© Steve Stewart and See Next Rock, 2013

 

Interlude: A Rant

A blogger friend of mine recently wrote extensively on the therapeutic value of cleaning toilets.  I can relate to that as it may be a useful way to live in the present moment for a change and put ones’ troubles in perspective.  But it occurred to me that I have quite a list of household chores I detest- not one of them therapeutic.  Cleaning toilets is on this list but it is not number one.  Oh no.  Number one is taking clothes out of the dryer.  I’d rather watch re-runs of Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood over and over as I did when my children were little rather than deal with those static electricity filled shock bombs.  I just can't stand touching hot greying white socks, hot tangled blue jeans, and hot t-shirts I’m embarrassed to wear when they cool down because they say things on them such as:  Whatever! or I Love Animals-They’re Delicious, or one that says I Believe under a photo of Sasquatch riding a trail bike.   I also despise using a broom, cleaning the sink, and emptying the dishwasher.  Vacuuming is OK though.  But this rant is not about my laundry, this rant is about scientists...and people who have no respect for science.

In the January 2013 issue of Smithsonian Magazine there is a fascinating article entitled Are Babies Born Good?   I read it in the bathroom.  It took me a couple of "sittings" as it is lengthy.  The writer reports on research done by Yale University’s Infant Cognition Center which is studying “the moral inclinations of babies—how the littlest children understand right and wrong, before language and culture exert their deep influence.  “What are we at our core, before anything, before everything?”  And surprise, surprise, they conclude that yes, “something’s happening here”…to quote a line from an old song by Buffalo Springfield.  Remember them?  Oh, you’re too young?  Whatever. 

Anyway, scientific studies from many sources are now saying the same thing.  To which I say: stupid scientists! Any parent can tell you….heck, I can tell you as a parent myself:  every baby is born with a different personality and you learn quickly that babies have always somehow known the difference between right and wrong, cruelty and kindness, love and hate.  For example, I was sitting at the kitchen table feeding my oldest son, then six months old.  The news was on TV, and he was facing directly in front of this TV.  The screen shifted into a clip of two men getting into a fight.  It was real and they were seriously hurting each other.  My son began to wail, clearly upset at what he was seeing.  Why was that?  We hadn't been teaching him that hurting each other was "bad".  And hey, don't give me the “culture is everything” argument and don't spout that “your right is someone else’s wrong" cliche either.  Baloney!  Even dogs can tell the difference between right and wrong.  Just look at Fido's face after you've caught him tearing up your leather jacket!

I’m not done here.  On the Smithsonianmag.com site is a retort to this article and research entitled: Babies Aren’t So Moral After All, Unless We Engineer Them That Way

This set of research scientists starts out by quoting one of the original study authors, Yale psychologist Paul Bloom, who states:

“A sympathetic parent might see the spark of consciousness in a baby’s large eyes and eagerly accept the popular claim that babies are wonderful learners, but it is hard to avoid the impression that they begin as ignorant as bread loaves.  I am admittedly biased, but I think one of the great discoveries in modern psychology is that this view of babies is mistaken.”

The Babies Aren’t So Moral scientists conducted their own experiment, one of them, that they say invalidates the conclusion that the Babies Are Born Good scientists purport.  Stupid scientists!  One experiment compared to many?  Everything is learned?  Everything is a result of cultural influences?  In other words, we are just empty hard drives waiting to be programed?  You must think we are as ignorant as bread loaves! 

These two articles remind me of the “global warming has nothing to do with man” argument.  On one side, hundreds of scientists with hundreds of studies are saying that yes, we are fouling our nest and we had better do something before it’s too late.  On the other side, a dozen scientists and dozens of selfish politicians are saying no, it’s just a natural cycle and there is nothing we can do about it.   I say:  just look around you people!  You can see it for yourselves!  As Bob Dylan said: “you don’t need a weatherman to see which way the wind blows”.  Smell your own polluted air!  Taste your own dirty water!  See the fish dying in your rising oceans!  Watch your forests burning!  Fellow bread loaves:  wouldn’t it be a good idea to try to fix this mess before it gets any worse?  Just saying.

References:

http://hideaheart.wordpress.com/2013/01/31/hey-it-beats-hanging-the-cat/ 

 http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/Are-Babies-Born-Good-183837741.html?c=y&page=2

http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/smartnews/2012/08/babies-arent-so-moral-after-all-unless-we-engineer-them-that-way/?onsite_source=relatedarticles&onsite_medium=internallink&onsite_campaign=SmithMag&onsite_content=Babies%20Aren’t%20So%20Moral%20After%20All,%20Unless%20We%20Engineer%20Them%20That%20Way

BTW:  I really only own the "Whatever" t-shirt, and I don't mind wearing it all that much. 

© Steve Stewart and See Next Rock, 2013