It has taken all of my long, varied & intensely reflective life to distill a few ideas of import including these two:

   Love rewards the expression of inner truth not outward praise.  Recognition can come at a terrible price because praise is a never-satisfied appetite & is often offered by those of limited vision & alternative motives. 

   Second, the creations of truth-writers are durable only if they have been "framed," recognized and promoted by advocates. Without these our contributions, no matter how "truthful" & beautiful, have little chance of surviving.

   Others must experience our work in a way they can absorb or it evaporates into the ether. 

   I thought of this for the one thousandth time as I framed a few of my pictures today. Of course, framing hardly guarantees survival, but it increases the opportunity that our best efforts will find purchase in the hearts of others.

   William Blake (1757 – 1827) is a prime example. The immortal English poet, painter, polymath and printmaker, recently described as "far and away the greatest artist Britain has ever produced," was ridiculed as a "mad man" during his life & was unrecognized by contemporaries. We would not know him were it not for an obscure patron named Thomas Butts & the loving curatorship of his widow, Catherine, who communed with his spirit & preserved the work framed in paintings & words. 

    It is not that the boats we launch into Eternity's river endure forever. Their voyages simply last longer when they are built with Truth, sail on Love's winds & are cheered along by the living. 

   We "frame" pieces of our creations in manifold ways: books, art, philanthropy, movements, inventions & more. Importantly, these contributions matter whether we are recognized. Helen Keller understood. One way we recall her is through framed words.

   And we send messages to the future through our children, friends & others whose names we never know & who may not recall us as the ones who ignited some light within them. 

  In 2 Corinthians 3:1-3 Paul wrote a message as hard to appreciate now as it was two millennia ago: "Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need…letters of recommendation…? 2 You yourselves are our letter, … 3 …written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on…human hearts."

-Rev. Erie Chapman 

Painting – "Lot & His Daughters" – William Blake