What Has Been Lost?
It is the end of idealism in these United States of America, forever
When Edvard Munch painted the picture above in 1893, he called it Skrik — Scream. About this he wrote:
I was walking along the road with two friends — the sun was setting — suddenly the sky turned blood red — I paused, feeling exhausted, and leaned on the fence — there was blood and tongues of fire above the blue-black fjord and the city — my friends walked on, and I stood there trembling with anxiety — and I sensed an infinite scream passing through nature.
The painting has been inspiration for many media events, including the mask used in the “Scream” movie franchise and as the model for aliens in Dr. Who.
I first saw it in my third year of college in a transformational art history class that laid the foundation for my subsequent understanding of art altogether.
Now I see it as a perfect vehicle for my inner reaction to the election outcome in these United States of America on November 5, 2024. It matches the essential feeling of loss that one has when something good has been removed from the cadence and truth of the life force.
In this case, that “something good” is the undercurrent of idealism that had been the foundation of this country even in its worst times. I…
