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It was at a coming of age party and she paid spoken tribute to her hard-working single mom. Glenda acknowledged Jessie's sacrifices and faithfulness by quoting from Bette Midler's lyrics: "You've been content to let me shine. You always walked a step behind. I was the one with all the glory while you were the one with all the strength." Next time you're at the New York Metropolitan Opera House take note of the two large murals in the lobby. French painter Marc Chagall did those. Themes of Hassidic Jewish life flourish in his work.Two artistic styles pervade his art: French cubism - he lived among there from the age of 36 until his death at 98 and Russian expressionism - he was born in Vitsyebsk, Belarus. 12 stained-glass windows in the Hadassah Hospital of Jerusalem's University Medical Center are powerful examples of his color mastery. In 1973 the National Museum of the Marc Chagall Biblical Message was opened in Nice, France. It displays hundreds of his biblical works. You come upon works by Chagall in both the Guggenheim and the Met in New York City.The art world is richer today because a Russian-Jewish painter was one of the 1500 people that a 32 year old Harvard trained American helped to flee from the threat of Nazi extermination camps. Varian Fry was a reluctant hero. There's a tree in his memory at Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem. It was only a sapling on the day I was there, gazing upon the many trees dedicated to those who saved Jews from their enemies. They're planted for the gentiles that are now called "Righteous Among the Nations." I don't recall even noticing it, but then that's how most of Varian Fry's days passed. No ticker tape parade marked his return to the States. In fact in those early days of the war the government reprimanded him for his actions. Fry made his home in Connecticut and ceased to speak of the stream of famous and gifted Jews that escaped Europe by his efforts. Perhaps even now you don't know that artist Max Ernst, writers Hannah Arendt, Franz Werfel and Hans Habe and sculptor Jacques Lipchitz were rescued by Varian Fry.In 1945 he published his war memoir: Surrender on Demand. Hardly anyone read it so he got a job and raised a family and lived in obscurity until 1967 when he received the Croix de Chevalier, one of France's civilian honors. It inspired him to rewrite his book. He was editing it, alone at home, when he had a heart attack. The police officer that found his body perused the manuscript. In his report he called it a "work of fiction." Another Midler line could say of Fry: "It might have appeared to go unnoticed, but I've got it all here in my heart. I want you to know I know the truth, of course I know it. I would be nothing without you." The harpsichordist Wanda Landowska; Spain's Catholic philosopher Alfredo Mendizabel; Fritz Kahn, medical authority; Jaques Hadamard, called the "Einstein of France"; and Otto Meyerhof, Nobel-Prize winning biochemist could hold those sentiments.
Those who admire eagles may or may not consider the wind. Be very sure God takes note. Jesus taught that God who sees what is done in secret will reward you. Even citations and awards are earthly. Jesus counseled: "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and thieves break in and steal, but store up treasure in heaven. Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." Do random acts of kindness - the rewards are out of this world! |