One of the fascinating aspects as I get older that I've learned is that we quote a lot of people that just up and disappeared and went into private. People that became hermits, people that isolated themselves from others, people that kept their distance from the hoi polloi.
I remember when I went to the Van Gogh experience, it was amazing to see his art and to learn about how he did it, but he did it mostly while he was in a sanitarium. And he cut off his ear, his own ear!
I remember looking at my mother and my wife and asking, "Why do we celebrate these people? Why do we look up to these people that are crazy?" It's similar with quotes, so many of the memes that we see are nice little sayings and quotes from speeches and people's writings, but a lot of those people went into the woods and didn't come out for a long time, or they were in jail and they wrote these things from jail, kind of like the Bible, but not exactly.
I just find it fascinating how we celebrate these people that isolate themselves and then pronounce their judgments on everybody. But then people look down on somebody like me who doesn't want to be around people that often. They warn to make sure to socialize and be with people.
Well, I socialize just fine. I think these people socialized just fine, but I also think that their quiet contemplation helped clarify some things in their minds and they were able to capture it. And that's why we like to quote and read and enjoy them and what they did.
Interesting thing to think about.
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