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| Photograph of Thomas Merton by Ralph Eugene Meatyard |
"…Who was Gene Meatyard, or Thomas Merton, or Louie?
I don't know.
Their shared genius was to defy definition, to remain a blur, unpredictably and mysteriously alive. But don't think there was anything special about them.
Emptied of the pursuit of specialness, we receive the grace of ordinary life, "as if existence itself were heavenliness."
- Barry Magid, from the Preface to "Father Louie, Photographs of Thomas Merton by Ralph Eugene Meatyard. 1991 Timken Publishers
It appears that through the magic of photography Meatyard has Merton as simultaneously " there" and "not there", "somebody" and "nobody" "special" and "not special".....the place we all should inhabit, I think.
ReplyDeletelike resurrected?
DeleteBeth ---- I am pleasantly surprised to see that you have "resurrected" this old project of mine and that Father Louie lives again.....And that the words I wrote for the Introduction all those years ago can still come alivefor you and your followers....
ReplyDeletesmiles and bows
Barry Magid
thanks, Barry, I think that you captured something of Merton and Meatyard that hasn't been as well expressed elsewhere. I bow and smile back!
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