OUR CONTAINERS

We are all born into soft, vulnerable, human containers. 

by Anne Geddes of New Zealand

For some years onward, we learn and explore using our containers with unfettered abandon.

And then we each bloom one way or another into a fresh young adult human being.

by Johannes Vermeer, 1665

Since ancient days we have reveled in the wonder of the human body.

Dying Gaul, Roman, 1st or 2nd century A.D.

We are walking around today with similar bodies as those of our ancestors.

Ancient Greek statue photoshopped by Leo Caillard of France

Our self-fascination continued from ancient times into the Renaissance.

by Sandro Botticelli of Florence

And in recent centuries it has become apparent that we come in all kinds of styles.

by Steve Argyle

by Andy Warhol, 1986

by Jo Verheezen of the Netherlands

QEII 1952

by Octavio Ocampo of Mexico

by He-Jiaying of China

So we each have this one body to work with our whole lives. Sometimes we take good care of it, sometimes not so much.

by Lucien Freud of Britain

Sometimes events of the world alter our containers.

Father Tim (after tour in Iraq) by Matt Mitchell

We can decorate our containers, for better or worse.

We might dress our containers in elegance.

by John Singer Sargent

Or we might stay with simplicity.

Even if our lives go just hunky dory, time begins to etch our faces.

by Eddie Flotte of Maui

Even our favorite blossoms mature.

if Joni Mitchell met Edward Hopper

Sometimes we react to this with wisdom and humor.

the Red Hat Society

Some of us keep our proper images to the end.

Nancy in Vanity Fair

Some panic at time's betrayal of our bodies. Some take it in good stride.

photo by Martin Schoeller of New York

We are each given one body at birth, to carry us throughout this life. We must each cope with our size, changing appearance, and health with our best creative energies.