What is it like to hold, or be in the presence of, some thing that you cherish?

Can it be a person?

There’s a small Rembrandt oil painting at the Kimbell Art Museum called Bust of a Young Jew that I never fail to stop to see when I visit there and never fail to be awed by. From a distance of five or so feet, you can see a glint in his eye that is so real you think he’s going to blink. But when you step right up to the painting, which you’re allowed to do, you see it’s only a small dab of yellow paint. Breath-taking.

And then there’s the Grand Canyon. I’ve visited it on a number of trips and at very times of day (dusk, dawn, mid-afternoon) and never tire of its majesty and beauty.

I have an autographed first edition of a book by a reclusive author that I was given about 26 or 27 years ago. It came to me out of the blue while I was living in Japan of all places.

I read the book first in college and fell in love with it. It is a modern classic and won the National Book Award.

I took it out and looked at it today as a matter of fact. It makes me feel warm.

Ineffable

This guy continues to do it for me

@Pachyderm_In_The_Room – We saw this piece during a special Rembrandt exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of Art about how he was the first to paint Jesus as a Jew and he modeled him after these portraits he’d made of Jewish men in his neighborhood. Amazing works.

It’s the best part of being human……maybe it’s the essential part. It can be a person, a work of art, or an object of sentimental or mythical value. In any case, we cherish it because it symbolizes or displays or holds within it our most deeply held feelings and convictions. It sometimes becomes the thing that we are living for, something beyond ourselves, beyond our petty every day concerns. The center that does hold.

Watching an infant (that I once was able to cradle in my forearm) grow up to be a beautiful human being, developing the complete spectrum of emotions, and showing such care and empathy for her fellow human beings.

That is the feeling that I get from holding an Antique book 400years old.
Wondering about who its original owner was , and feeling privilaged to hold it too.

I wonder if its the same for archeologists when they locate ancient artifacts.
It must be overwhelming to realize that they are the first to hold something
that someone once owned centries ago?