I finished one of my urban landscapes today. I think I’ll call these Cincinnati Intersection 1&2. It always feels good to finish a painting, even if I feel slightly unsure about it. I don’t finish many paintings without some kind of doubt. I had a teacher one time tell me they could work on a painting forever, that sometimes you just have to call it. I feel that way a lot. How long is too long? And, how many times have I reworked something only to regret it?
I will make my way down to 1-10 and Fredericksburg and take some photos of that intersection too. I think these are all going to make a great series, if urban landscapes are your thing. I’m going Saturday to meet a group that calls themselves Urban Sketchers San Antonio. They work mostly with watercolor which will be cool. I haven’t worked with watercolor enough. Hopefully I’ll make some good contacts and find some camaraderie.
I listened to a podcast today, something I haven’t written about in a while. It was The Ezra Klein Show featuring the editor in chief of Christianity Today, Russell Moore. What I found the most confusing is how rational he sounded talking to this liberal host and presumably liberal audience. How can a leader in the Baptist church sound so even keel when white evangelicals always sound so… fundamentalist?
It sounds as if the church is in just as much conflict as everyone else. He talked about preachers wanting to quit and being exhausted because parishioners think their church is getting too liberal, or too Trumpy. I guess we’re all in the same boat these days.
Is it really just the media? Is it the media that keeps us on edge, that’s got us anxious and frustrated? I feel like I’ve been waiting for Trump to go to jail for eight years. Is this what right-wingers felt about Hillary? Moore said he heard some evangelicals reacting to liberals saying “We can’t just turn the other cheek,” to which he replied, “That’s a direct quote from Jesus.” Apparently they didn’t care. They believe that these are times that call for different measures and that we can’t be weak.
In a way it makes me feel a little better knowing that this time of unprecedented conflict has reached every corner of society. I feel less alone. I feel less anxious about it. A lot of people don’t like Trump. It still disappoints me that so many people do, that they want him to be President, but that’s life in a democracy. I’m glad to hear though that not all evangelicals like him, or even tolerate conversations about him in their presence. My family used to get together for holidays but now it’s Trump supporters at one house and non-Trump supporters at another house. Frankly, I think it’s better for everyone.
The Brainwashing of My Dad was an incredible documentary about the media. It certainly wasn’t coming from a politically moderate perspective, but it did open my eyes to how many people out there had a loved one who started listening to right-wing talk-radio in the 80’s and became unreachable. Even before the entire country was at odds there have been friends and families at odds. People have been outraged for decades and there’s no end in sight.
ON a positive note, today’s podcast made me realize that there are people in all sorts of social circles who are intelligent and reasonable. Not everyone ‘on the other side’ is a raving lunatic. In fact, most of us are probably feeling the same things. We’re probably all feeling some sort of exhaustion, confusion, fear, and heartache. I wonder if and when we’ll return to happier times.