The Moon Takes the Bow: The Longest Fight in the Sky, Scored on Love, Fear, Respect, and Attention

Two fighters have been circling each other since before anyone kept records, and the purse has never changed hands: the human gaze. In one corner burns a furnace so vast that something like a million Earths could rattle around inside it, the engine behind every green leaf and every heartbeat on this planet. In the other corner floats a charcoal-colored rock, airless and dead, throwing back about twelve percent of the light that hits it. On paper the match is a slaughter. In practice the rock has been taking rounds for ten thousand years, and the strangest fact on the whole card is a matter of scheduling, since only one of these two shows up for both shifts.

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Calcification of Sorrow

Life is about letting go, starting over, and grief on the way to the grave. In between those monumental stations of human being, we endeavor to find contentment, discover joy, and save friendships from perishing. Here is how Vincent van Gogh drew to know sorrow in 1882.

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Art Must Be Created for Life, Not Commerce

Think of the mighty Vincent Van Gogh — the beautiful paintings, the idea that he cut off his ear due to illness, the many hours people have spent staring at his art. Think of Van Gogh sitting in a floating rubber tube, sipping on a champagne cocktail while enjoying fresh escargot. Only one of these thoughts has any relation to reality, and it is distinctly the first one and not the second. While his artwork has been enjoyed by generation after generation and people spend money without even thinking about it about works like “Starry Night” on t-shirts, postcards, etc. Van Gogh did not actually make a viable living from selling paintings.

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