It’s bleak this early December – Thanksgiving put away and Washington dark of evening and dark of morning. Winter is come.
But it’s the political landscape that chills. A good friend says when she wakes in the night and worries, she reminds herself that President Obama is still president, it’s OK to go back to sleep. And it is more important than ever to look for the cheer and light in this month, for us and for the children for whom we pictured a world with increasing compassion and decency.
On Instagram I’ve comforted myself by posting pictures of #goldreclaimed, because I loathe the recent associations of gold with intolerance, ugliness, and tastelessness. This political year did a number on red as well.
I began the Instagram posts after my eyes fell on a little tourist picture we bought – the reclining figure of Peace – a reproduction from “The Allegory of Good Government and Bad Government” (here) in the Palazzo Pubblico in Siena, Italy. Painted in the 14th Century by Ambrogio Lorenzetti, this huge three-paneled fresco remains painfully relevant.
On the “Effects of Good Government” panel, depictions are pastoral and bountiful as you might imagine. The panel on bad government is faded, but you can make out the captive figure of Justice, deserted derelict streets, and two armies advancing toward each other in the countryside. The “Effects of Bad Government” depicts “a devious looking figure adorned with horns and fangs…identified as Tyrammides (Tyranny). He sits enthroned, resting his feet upon a goat (symbolic of luxury), and in his hand he sinisterly holds a dagger.”
Ugh. So here’s to holding on to hope ‘til time to act, and in the meantime to red and gold in art and life. This little bit of research lifted my spirits not at all, but the red and gold in Lorenzetti’s Peace does.
her spirits rose... 
The first snow fell today. Before Thanksgiving, the herd of elk that makes its way from the mountain meadows down to our 1000 foot elevation arrived with new members, now numbering twenty.
It’s cold, Cristina Rossetti cold:
In the bleak mid-winter,frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow,
In the bleak midwinter, long ago.
Red, gold, a reclining peace – so needed, a respite from Standing Rock and twittering, the horrors that lie ahead or not. Time with those we love and care for, time for welcoming the light.
Thank you, Katie.
Oh Susan you make my day. How beautiful your words and Christina Rossetti’s. Thank you, and red and gold, peace and joy to you and yours!
This is good, Katy. I like it when you stretch your narrative beyond the intent of your blog, and it’s really not-my spirits were lifted.
Thank you Ben – high appreciated praise!
Good idea to reclaim red and gold — such happy colors for Christmastide. We must not let the Cheeto One ruin our holidays.
Exactly!