30.4

[val]

Jimi Hendrix or Janis Joplin or Richie Vallens or...

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March 30, 1853 - Vincent van Gogh was born.

What a breakthrough such an arrival seems!
What a blaze!
What an ending!
What a waste!

Interesting isn't that the resulting hexagram is none other than 22.

Happy birthday Vincent.

Thank you Bradford Hatcher for the appropriate translation of 30.4.

Love,

Val

[freemanc]

It really is a pretty rendering of 30.4, and apt, and still fairly terse.

"What..." is a good choice, I think.

And Val, apt for Van Gogh. Ever read his letters? They're quite something. Extremely sharp, sensitive guy. Reminded me of Keats' letters, in a way.

FC

[val]

I read his letters. I read Theo's letter. I read a number of histories on him and many "collection" books of his painting. I've copied his paintings and his style trying to understand him better.

And I took my grandson to see one of paintings hanging in the Philadelphia Museam of Art when he was 3 months old. He stared for a good long time, but when he saw some rosey-cheeked girls by Renoir, his eyes remained on them no matter where we went in the room. There was no distracting him.

Now that Vincent (he preferred to sign Vincent because he knew most people were going to mispronounce van Gogh) has been posthumously diagnosed as bipolar, I understand a little better. It all makes sense now. He was brilliant, he was creative, and he was tortured by his own body.

Love,

Val