![\"Hard](\"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/coffee-cognition.jpg\")
<\/a>Okay, every post could be a\u00a0variation of this – I was on my way to see X, when I saw Y. Two hours later\u2026 \u00a0<\/em>Today\u00a0<\/em>I was going to the hunting dog room, when I saw a small\u00a0painting with\u00a0this pair of hounds.<\/p>\n I had to\u00a0stop and draw them. Did them together and separately. A\u00a0passing tourist took a photo of me that serendipitously included the guard who kept a sharp but benevolent eye on me. It’s my favorite.<\/p>\n After lunch I ventured to the Dutch and Flemish rooms. Oh my, Rubens. I turned a corner and blinked. It was like he suddenly turned on the lights. Everything from the rooms before receded, becoming flat and dim in memory. His work looked supercharged with life, vivid and bright. Not just his luscious woman, either. I already knew he had an\u00a0unmatched grasp of the pleasure of carnality. This small portrait of fierce old man\u2019s face stopped me in my tracks.<\/p>\n It was dark-thirty by the time I walked through the Rembrandt gallery. Rubens is hunger and appetite; he exults.<\/p>\n Rembrandt aches.<\/p>\n He didn’t flinch from the dark. His darkness wasn’t a featureless void, it was a deep well that he could dip into and draw out\u00a0compassion and empathy. \u00a0“He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster.\u00a0And if thou gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will also gaze into thee.” – Nietzsche. **<\/em><\/p>\n I got to spend a good quarter of an hour essentially alone with\u00a0his Prodigal Son<\/em>, a theme that resonates through my own life. Rembrandt understands the shame of degradation, the benediction of touch, the unexpected, undeserved, and unconditional welcome home.<\/p>\n His painting is forgiveness made visible.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/a>