This is an oil painting I did a couple of years ago. I call it “The Fall”. I’m not a pessimist when it comes to the human race. I think I’m a realist. I put no hope in the human race, but I do hope for the human race. There’s a difference. After being a person for so long and hanging around them for so long, I know we are marked by a fallenness. There is a tragically broken chord which underscores all of our lives. It is always there. It takes humility to realize this. Pride, when it forgets this solemn fact, leads us into all kinds of foolish and terrible acts. To come to terms with my own fallenness, my own brokenness, is the beginning of joy and true living. To see the deception of my own heart and the delusional thinking of my own mind is the start of peace and sanity. Just the beginning. Just a start. But an important and necessary one if we are going to experience and see any transformation any time soon.
David Hayward is a pastor artistically stripping to the essential.
love the painting, true depiction of human frailty.
Yes we are broken but we’re also wonderfully fantastic.
Maybe it’s because I’m younger than you (no offence np!) but I have great hopes for humanity. Which is what you’ve said. But at the first sign of anything good, I commensurately put my hope in that person. I couldn’t not put my hope in people and live with them at the same time. And the people I know is just humanity in micro.
Yes I deceive myself somethimes but I’m also amazing. I’ve learnt to be very compassionate towards myself.
And the fact that I know I’m loved is just the icing on the cake.
Sas x
Of the many paintings of yours I admire, this is my favorite. You really capture the loneliness and despair of a fall.
ps if sounded arrogant do not mean to be at all.
Sarah x
I think I saw one of those guys hanging from a trucker’s mirror last week!
I guess I have seen so many transform and grow from letting go of the fear of being who they are that I have great hope for humanity. I can think of no case where who a person is at their core causes evil. In all cases that I have observed it has been fear, shame, and the belief in lies. These are all outside of humanity unless one is taught to let these in.
I am of the opinion that we are all beginners and its our immaturity that creates most of the pain. I have found that when I let go of judgment, particularly of myself, fear, and seek what is true through experience, not explanations, I find much greater joy in life.
To me, all this effort to make sure what I do is Biblical, good, and pleases God invests in a fear based relationship with the Divine and the fruits of this approach are ultimately self-centered, provide fuel for continual misery, and create a cognitive dissonance because it is inconsistant with the experience of life.
I can understand how feelings of brokenness can open up a new awareness. But I believe its because one has become broken, not because they are born broken. I find that when people come in contact with the power that is naturally within themselves there is plenty there to function joyfully and meaningfully in this life.
Its all this thinking, judging, making sure everything is right, expectations, rules, and the need for control that shuts down our essence. If I were to evaluate this truth based on theology I never would have believed it, but its very difficult to deny the experience of this.
I have read Jesus talk about this idea by saying that the Kingdom of God isn’t out here or over there, but its within. He also bases ethics on self referral. Love you neighbor as yourself, or do unto others as you would have them do unto you. So, to me, its obvious that there is something in there worth while.
We have the peace that passes all understanding. If peace can’t be understood, then there must be a way to have peace that doesn’t come through understanding. And yet there is all the emphasis on language, when, in my experience, peace comes through the risk of letting go of explanations.
So, I don’t really buy the idea of the fall. I do buy the idea that we are created in the image of the Divine.
I like the thought.
i think that where we begin is where we end up. if we begin with brokeness and separation, then that is where we end. if, however, we begin with wholeness and union, then that is where we will find ourselves.
my life changed profoundly when i stopped seeing and thinking of myself as “broken” and “fallen.” not that i mean to deny that i am human, but rather to see and think of myself as naturally creative, resourceful and whole.
it is in that light and understanding that i see others as well.
this, of course, did not occur in a vacuum, or with the flip of a switch – but rather through a megashift of who i understand god to be.
i guess you could say that as my understanding of who god is changed, my understanding of who i am changed, as well as how i understand who others are.
All pessimists say they’re realists.
@Fred: And most optimists take pride in knowing how to “fix” the so-called realists with a heavy dose of “believer-ness” until they themselves fall into a place where believerness doesn’t fix things but makes them barely bearable.
I think it’s funny that one definition of the word “optimist” is dingy. Oops, I mean “dinghy”. Specifically, an optimist is the type of dinghy in which youngsters, aged 7-15, learn basic sailing skills. Then they move on from the optimists to more advanced vessels better suited to rough waters.
Richard H – well said.
richard h. is always well said. richard: write for me?!
nakedpastor said, “richard h. is always well said. richard: write for me?!”
Ahhh, but much would be lost…
ttm: I disagree. There is more than one kind of optimist. There is the optimist that says, “This will get better but it’s going to take a lot of work.” Another says, “This will get better, let’s just sit back and watch it happen.” And then the whole spectrum in between.
Fred, I’m sure you’re right about there being many types of optimists. In our former comments you used the word “all” and I chose the word “most”. Of course if there is more than one kind of optimist, there must be more than one kind of pessimist. There is the one who says, “This won’t get better, but I will do what I can to deal with the suffering.” Another says, “This will probably never get better, but let’s just sit back and see what happens.” And then the whole spectrum in between.
I suppose the basic difference in optimists and pessimists is what kind of paint they use to decorate reality. (Shiny and easy to clean or matte which shows every smudge.) It’s wonderful when there’s a place in the house for all types of surfaces and there’s no manipulation for everyone to paint the same way.
What I was reacting to in your original comment was your statement that “all” pessimists are a certain way. I agree with your second comment which suggests that people, whether happy go lucky or angst ridden, are sprinkled across a broad spectrum of “normal”. (eggshell, satin, semi-gloss, etc.)