Fire Kindled by God
The words "Fire kindled by God" are inscribed, in Greek, above the south (student
center) entrance of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The words have been taken
from that literary elder statesman HOMER, and I think they refer to the kind of
passion that drives the artist to create.
But I often think of them in conjunction with another phrase that we use a lot in our
apt: Fire in the blood. It's what I get when an unknown scale is tipped somewhere
within me-- a fire under my skin that I can't control or put out-- a fire kindled by
God. An uncontrollable energy that brings increased clarity, impatience,
protectiveness, and --all too often-- anger. Not so much the impulse of the artist
as it is that of the vigilante, I think.
I know there are many people who have the same sort of bursts-- their own hidden
balance that is tipped by an unknown weight. I have great sympathy, on a day like
today, for these people. Great sympathy... and hope that they have their own
non-violent ways of channeling what they feel they cannot control. I think of how
much harm this kind of energy can do on many levels, but also, how much good. I
pray for the good every day.
Posted by jvoris at August 10, 2005 06:55 PM
This "fire" you speak of is what makes us unique on this planet. We all have this passion within us that demands to come out. For some of us, that is through art. For others, it is through science, or athletics, or math. Still for others, it is through behavior that is caustic to society. For still others, the passion is utterly ignored, and those people sadly lose the sense of being alive. We have the fire within us for a reason, I think. I would hope, like you, it is used to create art or things beneficial to the human condition.
