Vanitas?

Memento Mori was an early devotional subject in Christian art. It depicted St.Jerome contemplating a skull in the solitude of his celibacy, which I guess if you are celbate you are flying solo.

Throughout history, and art history especially, images of the Ars Moriendi - Dance of Death - have served to remind those walking this planet that our time is short and that while human life is brief, eternal life, is well, eternal. I wish they had come up with something more tangible because really, who can grasp eternity? I can't. It's a very elusive concept.

These images morphed into a special type of painting during the Reformation, known as vanitas, taken from Ecclesiastes 1:2 "vanity of vanities; all is vanity." These images were popular or less so depending upon immediate confrontation of existential issues that might be forcing society to contemplate their impending end or not; like the plague, great wars, or the plague again. 

Vanitas paintings of the Reformation period usually included emblems of transience and mortality - a skull (reference St. Jerome here) a candle burnt down, beautiful flowers in the over ripe display of their colors and blossom or in some early or advanced state of deterioration balanced against books, mirrors, and other symbols of human pleasure and ambition. In the details one can find little bugs eating away at the flowers or other objects in early states of withering on the vine, so to speak.

For me, playing on the existential playground, I understand the message. We can live too tightly wrapped within the constructions of our own making, avoiding the reality that exists at the end of the line. We all come with an expiration date. For me, the fates have tried to recall me earlier than I would like, and now having avoided two major health recalls that would have planted me firmly in terra firma, I still have to fight the bugs, worms, and other sundry evils little mutants that seek to demonstrate to me my own limited destiny on planet earth.

Vanitas - 2013 ... what the battleground looks like.

Well, I am not one to go quietly into the night, and while I just missed a seat on the Widow Maker Express (the nickname for the particular type of cardiac problems I had) I am gaining my strength back and will turn my attention to that small outposts of rebel cells that seek to destroy their host: me.

And, in the mean time, I intend to enjoy the fruits of this life. FIVE PLUS, it's a reminder to me that yes, while time is limited, go do shit. Some people don't have the do shit gene, but all it takes is a little motivation and anyone can do shit. So, that's my plan in the long and short term, and that's my message for anyone reading this: FIVE PLUS.