A week ago Amy and I visited the High Museum of Art in Atlanta. For months I have wanted to see the special exhibit of Salvador Dali’s paintings, so I was excited when the opportunity finally arrived. Amy has devotedly indulged me over the years. She attended her first (and last) opera with me; backpacked (again, her first and last time) with me in the mountains; and traipsed with me through many, many museums. On this particular sojourn she went primarily to give me company. “Dali,” she confidently exclaims, “is just too weird for me.”
Dali is many things: eccentric, ostentatious, showy, and, I will give Amy this one, weird. Yet his paintings are technically good and a marvel to view. Some of them are layered with meanings and others, I am convinced, are just…odd. Dali’s work is often classified as surrealism. In Dali’s case, his paintings were an expression of philosophical, religious, and scientific beliefs juxtaposing striking images.
I suppose one of the reasons I like Dali is that he helps me look at the world differently and things are not always what they seem to be. There is more than meets they eye. When we finished walking through the many galleries, carefully reading along the way the explanations of certain paintings as well as background material on Dali, I asked Amy with a grin, “What did you think?” She gave a one word reply, “Weird.”
The things we do for love.
Love underlines all our gratitudes:
- Love for family, neighbors and friends
- Love for church, members, and mission
- Love for this country’s freedoms and those who serve
- Love for this earth and her rich resources
- Love for words well spoken and well written
- Love for music, art, and theater
- Love for the stranger and the pilgrim and the one looking for a home
When we love we are grateful, and when we are grateful we love. Yes, sometimes it leads us to weird places like shelters and soup kitchens, and sometimes it leads us to weird people like the confused and disturbed, but when are hearts are full of gratitude we cannot help but love, and when we love as God so loves us, we are grateful.
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