I Read Somewhere That . . .

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Martin Luther King, Jr.

January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968

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Recently, I read somewhere (don't remember where) the description: "Sister Lynn, who is in her thirties and has a warm, librarian-like voice..." and I thought about this, wondering what a "warm, librarian like voice" sounds like. I tried to recall the voices of the many librarians I've encountered throughout my lifetime, but could not identify a single one of them as being especially 'warm' or in any way similar to all the other librarians' voices I'd heard.

I still don't know what a warm librarian-like voice sounds like. My lack of identification with the adjectives is quite likely due to my often displayed admissions of cultural ignorance.

But, the panegyric must have some validity.

Panegyric
(noun)
A public speech or published text in praise of someone or something.


In an interview with Michael Neilsen I read the following: "We don’t yet have a group da Vinci. We can’t take a thousand people and get something like the Mona Lisa." -- "Oh yeah," I said aloud (even though I was alone at the time) -- and I asked myself, "How can you possibly know that?"

Have a thousand people ever actually come together and conspired to create a potential work of art? If so, even if they failed have there been other attempts by other thousand-member groups to do so? How many? Were there attempts by a sufficient number of such groups to (even statistically) prove that the desired result could not be eventually obtained?

Or is this merely an example of, "Oh, everybody knows that."

And what's so special about the Mona Lisa? Because it is 'Great Art?' Because it's a 'Masterpiece?" simply because someone once declared it to be a Masterpiece of Great Art? and other people took up that opinion and finally enough people agreed with the original evaluation that it became accepted as Truth?

What's my point?

My point is that the statement, "We can't take a thousand people and get something like the Mona Lisa." is a baseless personal opinion.

That's my point.

Mona Lisa

Besides, what's so great about the Mona Lisa, anyway? I've heard and read the popular opinions that have praised, for instance, the mysterious smile of the painted lady.

To me, the praise is overblown. To me, all women at times smile in a mysterious manner. The Mona Lisa does not move me. Never has. I see in it nothing superior to any other image of a seated lady, be they paintings, drawings, or modern photographs.

Just because I have been bombarded all my life with proclamations extolling the greatness of the DaVinci painting does not mean I have to accept it as being so. The Mona Lisa, is nothing special. To me, it is just an old painting of a lady. That's all.

So that makes me an ignorant lout?

Oh yeah? So who's arguing?

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I just want to do God's will.
--Martin Luther King, Jr.