This is about quotes from around the house, where I found Nietzsche, Einstein, and Anis Nin.
“We do not see things as they are
We see things as we are.”
– attributed to Anis Nin
. Every so often I will ‘see’ one and have it resonate.Turning around in the woodshed one day to my surprise I found this painted on the beam supporting the wood shed roof. My eldest son, Eric, went through his teens writing philosopher quotes on door jams, mirror dressings and otherwise insignificant areas.
Quote over mirror
“As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain; and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality.” — Albert Einstein
On his bedroom door jam going into the room
“Institution of Insanity”
Institution of Insanity
Along the side
“M
E”
in thick black letters.
On the door going out is a visual “ r e a l ?”
… whose letters grow bigger and bigger until the question mark overwhelms everything else.
It’s been more than 15 years since he was a teenager growing up here, in this house and woodshed that his Dad built. He has long since gone to college, found his true love, and bought a house of his own. When I visit I don’t see any inscriptions on his door jams, but I treasure them here, in the house of his youth, where I still live.
If your child painted graffiti in your own home, would you paint or sand over it? What if it held deep meaning? How do you feel about graffiti inside your home? Or outside your home? As always, I welcome your comments.
You are the light of the world. Clar
Clar, this touched me right to the roots of my being. What a great deed. What great insight this gives to the character of both your son and you.
He showed his soul. You let it be.
This is a blueprint for the world to follow.
Wow, thank you. I too wish the world would have more tolerance and acceptance of each other. All we can do is let peace begin with us. Let our own beacon of light shine. I belong to Amnesty International ( http://www.amnesty.org.) . I am a freedom writer. I write letters to petition leaders and ambassadors to free prisoners of conscience, and other issues of human rights. It is one small thing that makes a difference.
Thanks Clar!
I appreciate the deep truths inherent in finding evidence about ourselves
where we’ve been and in our relations.
Thank you for sharing the true story of the love between your family and your world.
Hi Mieke,
Thanks for stopping by! Your comment elegantly expressed the truth about who you are, too.
I think turnabout is fair play …. take your trusty marker pens with you next time you visit the son and return the favour… it could be the start of a family tradition for generations too come!
Ha Ha, Yes the start of a new family tradition for sure.
I don’t think this would happen in our house because they’ve been told (threatened) not to write on the walls! But if I did find such writings long after they left home, I would certainly preserve them. Those are such sweet memories, thank you for sharing them :p
P.S. I saw you asked how to make the smilies – I responded with the two I use most, but then I got curious and found this page with tons of emoticons you can make (if you are so inclined):
http://codex.wordpress.org/Using_Smilies
Oops…I needed to use an uppercase P to make the smiley. Perhaps I should stick with what I know.
Janna…. thanks for the link
Hi Janna,
Yes, it does matter what and where the graffiti is in the house. The biggest and best are kinda hidden. The one that resonates with me the most is on a beam as you go out of the woodshed.”We do not see things as they are but as we are.” It’s in the shadow of the shed as you go out to the light. This in itself is meaningful although I don’t think Eric thought of that at the time.The rest are in rooms used as his bedroom at different times in his life as a teen. He even had a rather large painted yin/yang sign on one wall of his bedroom that I have kept but it is behind book shelves now.
Thanks for the explanation of emoticons. I’ll try it.
yep. it works!
Hi Clar,
I love the graffiti your son posted. My kids never did that and as much as I’d like to say I’d have kept it if they had, I fear that they would not have been as philosophical. They were far more likely to have been scatological and painting over would have been a necessity. Sigh.
Thank you for your comment, Bobbi, I guess I got ‘lucky’. When my sons left home I spent hours cleaning the shine-in-the-night alien faces they had stuck all over the ceiling and walls and phone and….
Things are not always what they seem.lol.