Art is everywhere, if you choose to look.
Lately, as the weather becomes a slightly more pleasurable each day, I am taking the opportunity to get back out on the streets of Toronto to observe what really happens here.
Last Thursday, on the way to an appointment, I was fortunate to notice something I had never seen before.
Just about any day you’ll find Ross Ward hunched over on Yonge Street tending to his art. The ‘Birdman of Toronto’ has been a fixture on these streets in various locations for well over a decade, and during each day he crafts, and sells, palm-sized birds.
Once only a hobby — this is now more than whittling — Ward carves out shapes of common birds from reclaimed wood. There is always a piece in progress, and always a small flock for sale on his concrete workspace.
Perhaps in our day-to-day journeys, we don’t look close enough at all the people. We don’t often observe enough to see art just happening here and there on our landscape. I’ve wandered this street how many times and only last week did I notice the man. I saw him again on the weekend.
Appreciating the beauty of his work, I bought a bird as a gift for someone . . . or maybe a souvenir for myself to one day remember my time in this city.
Couldn’t we all use more memorable hand-made art?
Can We Wonder?
We are, right now, captive in a moment where we are questioning everything we have known.
All of us want answers.
Too many of us have been isolated for too long. We now doubt everything from our faith to our practices, our governments, science, and each other; even those we are closest to.
More so, we question ourselves and will continue to do so as long as this pandemic threat continues.
We are tired of the distance. There is a gulf between what we used to know and all we can’t understand.
We no longer trust. We can’t.
We haven’t bottomed out (not yet), financially, morally, or spiritually but we don’t even know how close we are. We cannot know how deep this well runs, nor can we feel how empty it is.
We have lost touch.
We lack human contact. We are tired of looking at everything from a distance. We have lost perspective.
We have grown tired of waiting. We are tired of wanting.
Each of us is questioning where we are, what we have, and when we will get out of this mess.
There is no answer. Sadly, we wouldn’t believe it if there were.
Nothing is normal.
When will this end?
Will we go back to the way things once were?
Do we go back to what we were doing (can we go back) or will we allow our thoughts to wander. Can we wonder?
Can we still dream?
Are our dreams relevant? Are there some dreams we’ve held onto which can no longer be salvaged?
I have no answers.
I have no more questions than the next human. My voice is restricted to what I know, and I’m not even sure if there is value in knowing any more.
I no longer understand.