The Grapevine Art & Soul Salon

Reflections: Miller Musing

See Miller's reference to significant moments in his life:

See reference to Picasso's Guernica:

See Miller's dream about metal mobiles, and go to website below this image for an interesting blog elaboration on mobiles and playfulness:

Small, Local Festivals: Calder's Mobiles and the Significance of Formalism

See Miller comments on President Bill Clinton's critics:

See discussion of metaphorical descents. Among others that preceded the Christian teaching of Christ's Descent into Hell are the story of Inanna's descent to the Underworld where she was put to death and rose again to the upper world where she reigned as a major deity (Sumerian, 2nd Millennium BCE), and the story of Hades' abduction of Persephone who remains in the Underworld except for a few months when she leaves to be with her mother and brings us the season of spring (Greek, 1st Millennium BCE).

See Miller's take on Mother Teresa and Princess Diana as icons:

See discussion of God as money. Both Chinese and Indian traditions include acknowledgement that wealth is desirable, and in both cultures a deity has been assigned the role of receiving prayers for good fortune. However, in these cultures, money is not separated from other desirable measures of good fortune. In India, Lakshmi is the goddess of prosperity, wealth, purity, and generosity, as well as the embodiment of beauty, grace and charm. In China, Cai Shen is the god of prosperity who started as a Chinese folk hero, and was later deified and venerated by local followers and admirers, then taken up in Taoism and Pure Land Buddhism where he became venerated as a god. In modern times, especially in the West, we seem to have filled the place of the gods with an abstraction (currency) that is relentless, merciless, unjust, and able to render humans into abstract automatons full of craving and self-destruction.

See Miller comment on Hustler magazine as belonging to a Christian construct. (And if you haven't seen the film The People Vs. Larry Flynt, see it!)