Something Called Hope
From time to time it is pleasant to take a break from the Meme Wars, and post some nice surprise that has come my way in the Internet.

And I will admit that since I started this blog it has been a nice surprise that I have gotten a fair amount of hits on my website from the MidEast.

Truth be told, until a few days ago the second most common nationality to come here, has been from Saudi Arabia, then I got a rash of visits from Canada, but Saudi Arabia is in a solid third place with about twice the count of its closest competitor the UK.

Now I never was one of those who thought of all Muslims as the Enemy. I had that position even before I started reading The Religious Policeman and discovered someone who thinks a lot like I do. But that is not the blog I want to speak about today.

When I started this blog back up, a couple of months ago, after a hiatus since last November, I looked for interesting blogs to link to. One that I found was a blog in Saudi Arabia called From This Side of The Window, now it is true that most of what Prometheus posts in A Small Spot of Light is in Arabic and I cannot read it.

Still on a regular basis I look at my sitemeter account and see yet another visit from that same referral website. I think cool, Prometheus has paid me a visit and click on it to return the favor and see what if anything is new on that site.

Then yesterday, I did this, and my immediate reaction was, the Universe certainly does love Symmetry. ;-)

There was a post called 75 years of America?s Mona Lisa it concerns the American Gothic painting by Grant Wood.

To get some idea of WHY this event gives me a sense of Symmetry and Balance in the Universe, I live in Iowa now. The painting's birthplace was the Iowa hamlet of Eldon.

Also I live a ten minute drive from the Mother Mosque of the Western Hemisphere. Like wheels within wheels my Blog in Cedar Rapids, linked to a blog in Saudi Arabia, which has a post about one of the archetypal Americana Paintings from Iowa and I am living right beside the Oldest Mosque in the Americas.

Perfect Symmetry, and that we are so connected is an incidation of something that I decided to make the title of this post, there really is "Something Called Hope" for all of us.

Now I will only post the beginning of Prometheus's post here I want you to go to that site and read the rest.

75 years of America?s Mona Lisa

The following is a critique of a new book, in which the author talks about America?s most famous painting: American Gothic .
Reporter John Miller does not seem to be fully satisfied with the author?s analysis and conclusions. He?d rather look at this piece of art as a celebration of American patriotism, whereas the author has a very different interpretation of the iconic picture.

National Review, August 18, 2005 - If the Mona Lisa is the world?s most instantly recognizable piece of art, then what?s the best-known piece of art to come from America?
That?s easy: It?s the painting that won third place in the Art Institute of Chicago?s 43rd annual exhibition on American paintings and sculpture, in 1930.
You know the one. You?ve seen it hundreds of times before: American Gothic, by Grant Wood.

I did get a chuckle out of seeing a European version of the painting.













New American Gothic? by Norwegian satirical painter Rolf Groven, modeled after Grant Wood's masterpiece.

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