“I study Cathedrals”

I’ve only been to one Cathedral in my life — St. Patricks’s Cathedral in the heart of Manhattan. I was in there for two minutes, took a picture, and then walked down the street to the Lego store.

Henri Matisse said “There are Cathedrals everywhere for those with the eyes to see.”

People always ask me what I do. But how do you answer that question when one day you feel like you do a million different things, and some days, you feel as though you do nothing.

“I’m a student. I study.”

“I’m an artist. I create art.”

“I’m a writer. I write stuff.”

The other day, I was driving thinking about St. Patrick’s Cathedral and how I could have possibly missed out on some of the best inspiration of my life, sitting in an ancient, holy, beautiful building. Why, I may have missed out on an entire life of inspiration by choosing to do the things I’ve chosen! I settled it in my mind, if I were given the chance to go back and do it all again, I would devote myself to studying Cathedrals. I would do it, and it would be a part of who I was. I would travel the world, learning about the intricacies of each particular Cathedral. I would study the history of how they came to be and the hands that formed them. And then I would share the beauty of my findings with the world. My life would be fascinating simply because of the object of my fascination.

Later that day, I walked through my front door and went directly to my desk to work on a new piece of art.

I was to write about an old man I had seen sitting, doing nothing. That’s right. Sitting on a bench, in a park, just looking. There was no sandwich to be eaten, no book to be read, only a seat to sit in while he looked at the world. Fascinating. Inspiring.

My life is fascinating, because I’m alive, and human — and because those two things are true, the object of my fascination is the world in which I now have eyes to see.

You were right Matisse, they’re everywhere.