Ant Musings (3)
Story and Painting by Lehan Winifred Ramsay
There’s a card in the Tarot called The Hanged Man. The hanged man is stuck up a tree, tied upside-down, unable to escape. If the hanged man stops struggling, makes use of his time observing the world upside-down, then it will be time spent well. I don’t really know what kind of benefit I could receive by spending years as an ant. I do know what I want, perhaps that’s a start? I want to find problems that need to be fixed. I’m quite good at it, and I figure that a ten-percent clean-up will often solve the problem, without too much effort, and a twenty-percent clean-up will bring out new possibilities. I’m convinced of it. I also believe that many errors are simply work in need of a little revision. Up to the present, I’ve taken a hands-on approach, so most of the problems I’ve found are my own. I’m always happy to share my considerations of other problems. Nobody much wants to hear about problems from an ant though.
Lehan, I just love your pictures.
Rich in texture, in architecture, in colour, in elegance and eloquence of expression; and all of that, executed within the boundaries of subtlety and simplicity. It speaks as articulately as do your observations about the situations and conditions Fate imposes upon us and how to still keep our independence and make the best use of our many resources as human beings. How not to forget we’ve got them and abandon ourselves to that condition. How not only not commit suicide but, instead, to revolt.
Albert Camus wrote a novellette about the same thought, called “The Myth of Sisyphus” where he said what you said above in a much more verbose -and less elegant and eloquent way. Your combo of words and painting is much clearer and more intellectually logical than Camus’ work.
Just wonderful stuff!
I wish I could find some great gallery in the world where you could exhibit it all and which gallery management would pay you lots of money to exhibit them! They should – I’m imagining- exhibit both, painting and words.
My heartfelt encouragement to you!
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ato, you said more or less what I wanted to say, and so much more eloquently…I too found ‘The Myth of Sisyphus’ a bit too complicated and as you put it ‘verbose’…
Yet I absolutely loved the ‘The Outsider’, it made an huge impression on me.
The painting of the ant, simply beautiful!
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Ah, yes, L’Etrangér!
What writing! Very apropos, actually, to what’s going on in North Africa right now. Loved it and that milieu of European (well, French, anyhow) writers -except Proust, whom I found excruciating, despite the fact that everyone else loved le båtard! Gide left me cold as well.
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Ant replies, “well, last time I saw him he was in Achilles’ bar…. and he looks like… well, he likes looks quite a bit like you: sort of Greek, sort of angry, sort of belligerent, sort of drunk, sort of… now ant that a co ant cid ants?”
By the way, the bar was called “The Jolly Antagonist.”
Ehhhh, sorry bout that! I’m an incoherant insomniant!
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Damn! This ought to have gone below Hungie’s bar yoke!
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Definitely not a good night for coherence, ‘Mou. Not a good night to have drunken too much turps afore sweating it out on top of the sheets with the fan roaring – because some un-named person forgot to order a new filter for the air conditioner – twice in the last two weeks. Not mentioning anyone with whom you might be familiar.
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of course!
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In the 80’s people really learned to play with music and sound. It’s foolish to think that this didn’t push computing along. Music is a great mathematical challenge for people who don’t like numbers.
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Ant walks into a bar and says “Anyone seen my brother?”
Barman says “Wadda he look like?
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