Days 57-61 – Surreal Gifts From the Sea

Enlarge this photograph & discover a world both recognizable & disorienting. This jars us in the manner of a surrealist painting by Rene Magritte. Is that what it takes for us to live anew – to avoid death by a million blows from the dull knife of boredom?

We know this sea. We know this sunset. We know the shells & the curved driftwood. We can even identify a photographer appearing impossibly amid this melange.

The surreal challenges our reality. Each image is factual. All are related. And the picture makes no "sense." The sea never delivers angel wings so perfectly. Half the gulf is turned sideways. One shell is a hand reaching for the sun.

Serene elements become as uncomfortable as an operating room in crisis. This is the dream of the anesthetized patient – real & then forgotten when the patient leaves surreality for "reality."

"Ordinary" is a stealthy killer. He arrives quiet as a clock unheard until it stops. "New" sings the song of a just-birthed baby.

Caregiver burnout is caused, in part, by monotony. The fresher we see the brighter each day becomes.

Every ocean changes for those tuned to her rhythms. Each falling sun holds new energy yet it is common to dismiss "just another sunset."

In Gifts From the Sea, Anne Morrow Lindberg took shells familiar to millions & converted them to metaphors for the spirit. Is this is how we live deeper into life's mystery?

-Erie Chapman

Mixed image photograph "Variation on a Theme by Magritte" copyright Erie Chapman

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Categories: Reflections, Holidays, Spirituality

Tags: caregivers, Erie Chapman, Rene Magritte, surreal, surreality

6 responses to “Days 57-61 – Surreal Gifts From the Sea”

Terry Chapman

February 27, 2017 at 5:04 am

This is, to me, a very challenging post. On the one hand, it shows me water, which in any form, soothes my soul. But on the other hand, it shows me disparate items; the photographer seems somewhat on “cue” to my rational mind; but the other items, taken as a whole, seem to lack logic, which my conventional self craves!
I pause after writing this first paragraph and realize, however, that every day should contain a little mystery, a little challenge, or a little jarring of my senses, to further reassure me, beyond my intellect, far deeper in my being, that I know only a very little about reality, and that piece, will always be only my reality, not that of the wider world unseen!

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Anne Milligan

February 27, 2017 at 12:20 pm

I know it’s cheating, but truly everything Terry said, Erie. Thank you both!!

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Olivia McIvor

February 28, 2017 at 4:31 pm

brilliant!!

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~liz Wessel

February 28, 2017 at 8:55 pm

I agree with Terry, your provocative post, Erie challenges us to go beyond our comfort zone and the confines of daily routines. Yes, your surreal image is a bit disorienting but serves a great purpose. To knock us off the circular routines and awaken to this moment. Thank you for this gift.
Last night I read a little about Anne Morrow Lindberg’s life, never having made the connection that she was the same Anne married to Charles. Oh the tragedy they endured! I ordered her book, “Gifts from the Sea” and I look forward to reading her beautiful poetry.
What this reflection stirs relates also to my daily work. Today I headed into work with my agenda of what I considered “important” things to accomplish. However, other issues and concerns popped up that took on a life of their own. This happens often; changing gears to respond to the need that presents itself in the moment. “life happens when we are busy making plans.” Balancing the asks versus the agenda and priorities is a daily challenge; to keep focused on what matters and perspective in our lives. I have heard it said, that in the end no one will remember the long hours we worked so much as our patients, family and our friends will remember the love we gave…

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Todd Meador

March 1, 2017 at 9:01 pm

Erie,
This image is different than the one I saw at your office yesterday. It is also less “crisp” than the one on your computer. If you click on the image in the blog it will become more “crisp”, but as it is displayed, it is not.
To me the slight blur makes it seem more like a painting. If it were a painting, the artist can paint items that defy logic. However should it be a photo, we would think it to be more like reality and it is possibly more jarring to the view when the edges are crisp, but more soothing when the edges are blurred.

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Jolyon

March 2, 2017 at 8:15 pm

Maybe it is just me, but…
I do not see the picture as surreal. I see it as a picture book or an illustrated poem, the words are not written but composed (choreographed) into position. And of course, as english readers we ‘read’ the picture from left to right. Such a different story it is for those that read right to left.
Surreal as a word is only one hundred years old but has been around since the beginning of oral time. Think of Hinduism and Maya, the illusion of life as reality. As I grew up, the art form of surrealism played into my reality. Salvadore Dali was as much an influence as Jim Steranko from the comics. Superheroes were as normal a concept as any thing else. A clock melting off a cliff with a secret agent chasing a Hydra agent with a green lady in spandex in the background. Better that than what goes for realty and truth nowadays.
I read recently that there are some scientists that believe we live in a computer simulation. Now that is truly surreal. But computers always fail. And have glitches, artifacts and sometimes have blue screens of death… but it does explain away the notion of spontaneous combustion.
Watching the wind is surreal. In a heavily treelined area the wind sounds like waves at the ocean, first from the north and then from the south. And the sound transports you to the beach… Can you really watch a wind?
Maya

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