Artists of all kinds—painters and writers and sculptors and more—can choose freedom. Enjoying the privilege does not require that it be given to them—they do not need benefactors to bestow it upon them. They can simply seize it. Because they are not tethered with chains to hideous realities, they can experience worlds of their own making. That is not to say hideous realities will not pursue them with a vengeance. Yet even in the midst of being torn to pieces in the relentless jaws of captivity, their versions of the world as it should be cannot be imprisoned. The scent of freedom becomes a contagion; once it has been released, the thirst for its source is unyielding.
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Freedom takes many forms. The simplest, perhaps, is solitude; achieving the wish to be left alone. Nearly as simple and strong is true companionship; and the unquenchable desire to know someone cares.
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An asteroid twice the size of Earth’s moon will be discovered in the coming months. Hidden for centuries (or longer), locked in orbit behind Mars, it will come into view (with the naked eye) just after its discovery, which will coincide with breaking free of Mars’ gravitational field. The asteroid will be on a collision course with Earth. Nothing can stop it. Much of Earth’s population will gather on the shores of the planet’s oceans to witness the impact. Of course, no one will tell what the impact was like, because no one will survive the obliteration of our planet. And thus will end the story of planet Earth and, incidentally, humanity.
