Sunday 5 February 2012

Frozen Bike: modern work of art


When I saw this bike, which at this very moment is standing outside a house in the shadow of the Alps, north of Lake Como, I thought

"Nature is such an artist. What work of modern art could be better? But as Nature beautifies, it also ruins man's works".  

At this moment, this bike will not move. The ice damage could well trigger its serious deterioration. Nature both upholds and "breaks down".

Much of our lives are spent defending against this effect. We enjoy living under a wood, but I devote time and money to mending a roof, clearing gutters, cleaning moss covered tiles, mending fallen fences, cutting away undergrowth and weeds.

So threatening is this creeping deterioration of property/belongings due to invasive Nature, it is causing some friends to move from their beauteous childhood home - to a modernist, plain retirement home - to escape not the fact, but just the worry of ongoing maintenance costs.

Underlying this is a principle of this present world. This frozen bike is a work of art - but its beauty is two-edged. Beauty on the earth always is. Beauty comes at a price.

But, in Heaven, true Beauty is not "double-edged", it is "pure" beauty. 

This is a kind of beauty, we have never known.

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