The Marshes of Glynn: NAJ screen shot

The Big Picture –
By Glynn Wilson –

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In my dreams it sometimes seems possible to solve all the world’s problems with only the abstract expression of a correct thought derived from empirical observation.

But in the waking life of living, breathing human beings, this would only work if all were rational, logical beings who operated with virtue towards themselves and others.

Over the centuries, from their own dreams and thoughts, scholars have articulated “cardinal virtues” for us to try to live by, including prudence, justice, temperance, and fortitude. Combine these with the three theological virtues of faith, hope and charity and you find a prescription for living a happy, meaningful life.

Looked at another way, there are seven so-called “capital virtues” that are depicted in direct opposition to the seven so-called deadly sins.

Chastity is valued over lust.

Temperance is valued over gluttony.

Charity is valued over greed.

Diligence is valued over sloth.

Patience is valued over wrath.

Kindness is valued over envy.

Humility is valued over pride.

Now I can’t say this about my early years, when I committed sin after sin in search of instant gratification. But in recent decades, I have basically lived like a monk.

Not that I will win any awards for this, or be given any credit by what passes for judges and juries on the new platforms for judging human character, social media.

But I can’t waste any more of what time I have left worrying about such things.

I found my calling a long time ago. I am a news writer, and it is my path to write news to try to enlighten people and make a difference for democracy and the planet. Whether it works or not is not up to me. I can only do what I do, and people can pay attention and act or not.

In my down time I watch a lot of movies and shows, and wish I could find a way to make a few of my own. But no matter what I write or how much I try to reach out, the rich celebrities on television are paying attention to something else.

I take some comfort in the fact that no one paid any attention to Henry David Thoreau when he was alive either. He wrote one great book which did not sell when he was alive, a minor book and a few articles in his life, and he was just considered a quirky character and a hack. Until he died.

Perhaps I will be discovered after I’m gone. If not, that won’t matter much anyway, because I will be gone from this world and won’t know anyway. The way I look at it is this: I lived. I wrote. I had fun. And then I died.

All art dies eventually anyway, right?

I mean think of the painter and sculptor Beverly Buchanan. I bet not a single person reading this has ever heard of her, unless you closely read The New York Times like I do.

A Vanishing Masterpiece in the Georgia Marshes

The “Marsh Ruins,” as they are called, built in 1981, are arguably her masterwork, according to a few writers and art experts. But there is nothing to mark that they exist at all. They are rocks sinking into a sinking swamp.

The work is partly a homage to Igbo Landing, a fundamental story of Black freedom-seeking that unfolded at the other end of these marshes. It also deals a gnomic retort to “Marshes of Glynn,” a 19th-century poem by Sidney Lanier, allegedly “Georgia’s greatest poet.”

“For four decades, the sculpture has sat unmarked and unknown, cracking and sinking into the marsh — just as the artist intended,” according to the Times.

Art designed to decay and sink into a swamp. Imagine that. And she got a Guggenheim Fellowship for that?

I have seen the wide sea-marshes of Glynn, and I would not want to live there, although for a time I lived on Glynn Street in Milledgeville, Georgia, in the hometown of Flannery O’Conner.

Sidney Lanier glorified the Old South, like the movie “Gone With the Wind,” now showing on Max, along with the magazine Southern Living, which I do not read.

I have a friend who is a direct descendent of Lanier, now living in Portland, Oregon, who once claimed to be writer. I have offered him a chance to write about this here, but he can’t find the voice.

The Marshes of Glynn

Now back to the news.

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