You've Got To Be Kidding Me!!!!!

That’s what I felt like yelling at the USPS worker when he told me: Well I didn’t do it.

I had been practically gnawing my finger off in excitement at getting Charlie Spear’s painting Falling Down Man.

So when I looked upon the damage that the USPS had wreaked upon Charlie’s painting, I felt like starting a revolution on the spot.

But of course I didn’t. No. After filling out a form and talking with the postal worker, who of course was quite right in pointing out that he wasn’t the one who had warped Charlie’s brilliant painting, I said ‘Thank you’ and walked out of the post office in a daze.

I have included two different pics of Falling Down Man.

The first pic clearly shows the extent to which the frame has been warped.

It is not obvious from the pic, but the frame is incredibly solid. So I can’t imagine how it got warped like that. Someone must have put a piano on it.

The second pic is of the painting as it now appears from the front.

Charlie is an incredible artist, and Falling Down Man is, in my opinion, an incredible painting. I had planned on talking about Falling Down Man and the rest of Charlie’s work. And indeed, I will in a future blog entry. Here are links to two websites where Charlie displays his work.

http://www.myartspace.com/CharlieSpear/

http://charlie-spear.artistwebsites.com/

At the moment, however, I have to turn from Charlie’s work and simply report that the Universe taught me a lesson today. Yes, it did.

One might naturally have thought that I would be downhearted, livid perhaps, at what happened to Charlie’s painting. And I was just briefly. Well not livid exactly but definitely beyond flustered.

Had the USPS just torpedoed the Van Gogh Project? Had I returned to square one? Would anyone trade for a damaged painting? These are the questions that swirled around my head for a few hours.

But as I sat in my chair staring at Falling Down Man, after having talked to Charlie on the phone about what had happened, I inhaled the air around me and suddenly felt incredibly tranquil. My despair quietly receded and I couldn't help but smile.

Believe it or not, I realized that the Universe had just given me an incredible gift.

That may sound crazy. I know. And I'll try to explain myself in a future post.

For now I can only tip my hat to art and the universe.

Yes indeed. Art. It truly is a matter of perspective.

And yes indeed. The Universe. It really does work in mysterious ways.