The Creation of Adam

"What a piece of work is a man? How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty, in form and moving how express and admirable, in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god, the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals. And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust?"
---Hamlet

If the pouty prince of Denmark saw what Man is capable of on the walls of the Sistine Chapel, he might just lighten up a little. I've often wondered what God looked like, what his favorite bands were and how he came up with his amazing and perplexing thing called life? Different people have explained creation it in different ways.

The Australian Aborigines believed that there was a time when everything was still and all the spirits of the Earth were asleep untill the Father of All Spirits gently awoke the Sun Mother and instructed her to go down to the Earth and awake the sleeping spirits and give them forms.

The Semitic religions (Christianity, Judaism, Islam) share a common creation myth, which makes me wonder why thousands of years later, people who believe that their world was created in the same way can't seem to co-exist in it with others who believe in the same thing?

But looking at Michelangelo's interpretation of the Creation of Adam is to witness God's creation of His own image. We should treat ourselves and those around us better because we all carry that divine spark within us. It would be a shame to see such a light diminished by petty and temporary human concerns.

Adam's posture is languid and reposed, at this point, a mindless creation, like a toy robot with no batteries. He's like the film Shaft without Isaac Hayes on the soundtrack, he has no soul. He lies relaxed, but the hand of God is bristling with holy energy. Their fingers never touch, but you can almost feel the divine spark about to leap between the Creator and this quintessence of dust.

While he was a bored medical student, Dr. Frank Meshberger quite accidently discovered that the part of the the painting where God was surrounded by angels resembled a cross-section of the human brain, which he assumed to symbolize God's gift of intelligence. In Hinduism, the consort of Bramha (creator of the universe) is Saraswati, the Goddess of knowledge. Even God has a women who knows more than He does.

Fast Forgiveness

Martin Luther would have liked this picture by Anry Nemo about the way people feel in our modern world.

Kingdom Come

Here is a myth: If you work very hard, with enough determination and persistence, you can become anything you want.

Here is another myth: No matter how hard you work, no matter how much you persist, you'll never become what you want.

At some point, each of us chooses which myth we believe in. Ever since he could pick up a crayon, all Alex Ross ever wanted to do was draw superheroes and make comics. So did a lot of other kids. But most of them either soon drifted to other fantasies, or just grew up altogether. Alex Ross never did. His stories are a simple ones: Once upon a time a lonely little boy in Lubbock, Texas, turned to comic book heroes for friendship. And they did what they do best - they rescued him. But then, after a decade and a half of hard work and intense study, something amazing happened.

He returned the favor.

Does that sound unbelievable?