The Paris Pivot (Part V)

The Paris Pivot:

(Part V):

Until the first time he picked up a pencil, which saved him, and after failing out of secondary school, even a miraculous honorable discharge from the Armée de terre; Gabriel didn’t draw, paint, or visualize art at all. Instead, he suffered for 5 months under fumbling, misguided, veteran’s socialized medicine; mostly sleeping, in a bewildered confusion brought on by prescription drugs—numbing his senses and drowning him in a haze of disorder worse than the fog of war.

Gabriel almost didn’t make it out of the fog, but he made it to Paris.

I’ve labeled this chapter in his life the Paris Pivot, because it turned Gabriel’s life around. Concentrating on art as behavioral therapy rivaled whatever stimulant drugs (Ritalin), or psychedelic, organic tea had done for him so far. The tiniest details of his penciled drawings allowed him a portal to an awareness only achieved while meditating; but I experienced also the delicate social interplay between us focusing him intently, enlivening and stimulating him. Loosely called “flirting” in America, but very pedestrian in France, I didn’t know at the time whether a well-groomed American girl with a guitar could pull him out of his shell, but we recognized in each other an attractive detour from our pre-planned escape routes.

I represented for him a normal experience he could not have hoped to achieve while medicated. His depressive dullness kept him out of the cafés, and he was not self-confident enough to approach me at the time; even though his devilish grin and colossal frame, on the surface alone, made him radically gorgeous to me. I was falling backwards, spinning around, light-headed, over the moon, whatever you want to call it.

Out of the chaos of a mixed-up mind, he began to see eternal patterns. He drew the same self-similarity, or scaling, that is common among the seed patterns of flowers or trees. Even though Gabriel often seemed like a bumbling professor, or starving artist; his mind naturally pictured this famous ratio, with a long and honored history in mathematics, from Euclid and Aristotle to modern computer calculations. His black & white pencil drawings reflect the simple but divine “proportion” of Leonardo da Vinci, considered the most beautiful and important of mathematical standards.

Gabriel even sought the medicinal effects of mind-altering tea that has been brewed for centuries in the Amazon River basin. He found an underground tea-shop on the Left Bank, conducting ceremonial "tea-party" healing sessions where an Ayahuasca "potion" was served for many searching, tortured souls. Made from a blend of two plants, containing the hallucinogen "DMT" --  the psychoactive compound of organic elements provided a powerful, transformative, upending, "high," good for the ameliorating affects on numerous psychological conditions. Unfortunately, his brain activity changed little under the influence of ayahuasca, and the tea ceremony was anticlimactic. Gabriel's treatment-resistant depression was best fought by pursuing art.

He studied the nature of these forms and their relationship to each other (ratio), giving Gabriel a greater insight into the scientific, philosophical, psychological, aesthetic, and mystical laws of the universe. Natural inquisitiveness instructed him more than formal schooling; in fact, these symmetrical images opened his life onto a new path, resurrecting his future. During hours of meticulous sketching, grappling with all he had lost, fighting against the misunderstanding that dominated his existence before now; Gabriel used science to cure himself of dysfunctional mystery, reinventing and reinvigorating his soul. Detailed drawing was a small, simple way for him to express truth, and as deep as were his wounds, so deep too was the healing.

Failing to bring up the utility of studying law, nor my dusty, unstable ambitions of helping incubate struggling African democracies, we rarely discussed the chances that Gabriel could make a living painting, any more than to contemplate the average signing bonus for a beginning US “junior-lawyer”. His confidence, now rooted in his journey in the arts, also buoyed an exceptional faith in the rightness of his journey. Realistically, because I did not completely sell-out to my artistic abilities, instead falling back on my training as a lawyer; I was playing it safe while in Paris. But Gabriel didn’t have any other options, and I’ll admit to you here, that the question of whether his talent could carry him into his future, produced an unspoken tension between us. ##

Fiction 2018©Mark H. Pillsbury

Movie Review: LINCOLN

DreamWorks film "Lincoln" (2012)

(Houston, Texas)  Movies allow us time travel, expanding our horizons, opening us sometimes to depths of emotion we did not realize we carried. History’s power as storyteller derives from actual events; yet knowing the end of the story, the dramatic depiction still holds our attention. It happened to me watching the new movie “Lincoln.” I wasn't impatient for the end of the movie, and hardly noticed its extreme length. I rarely recommend the time and money this film requires of its viewers, but I do today.

The adept telling of history strengthens the foundation of our Republic, grounding it ever stronger in the truth; allowing viewers to probe their ordinary world with the tools of experience. Director Steven Spielberg accomplishes the impossible task of telling Lincoln’s story with aplomb, placing special emphasis on the passing of the 13^th Amendment by Congress in 1865. This central narrative showed how the abolition of slavery effected the drive toward peace in the Civil War.

Euclid’s simple scientific truth profoundly affected Lincoln’s thinking about human equality. Elemental to the geometry of Euclid was this statement, “things which are equal to the same thing are equal to each other.” Abraham Lincoln likened this principle as truth that could be applied to the fight against slavery: he saw the “same thing” as God; therefore, as equals created in God’s image, African slaves were equal to white Americans, however difficult the consequence of this truth. This is the only scene I will discuss, and even though it is short, its power is immense: Lincoln steadfastly believed equality under law was worth defending, even through the shedding of blood.  

The acting ensemble, including dozens of politicians, generals, and White House personnel, gave the appearance of reality while not taking the spotlight from the main character. Spielberg’s use of light in profile shots formed a corona from the differentiated rays of the sun blasting around Lincoln’s body in many scenes. This bright aura reflects his uncommon magnanimity; another way of visually showing the saintly reverence Lincoln deserves. Most of what we've learned about history is wrong, but this movie gives a fair account. The South is not demonized, the Congress is shown for what it is (a hyper-lobbied mess), Lincoln struggled with a difficult family life as the war raged, and the force of personality often superseded his political and intellectual talent.

The pantheon of Spielberg classics receives another member into its prestigious Hall of Fame. This movie is a national treasure and should not be missed. (150 minutes, DreamWorks)

©Mark H. Pillsbury