December 3, 2004
Florence, Italy
I’m sitting in front of Michelangelo’s David. It is larger than life, perfectly situated under a brilliant dome.
He is captivating.
We wandered over to the Accademia to see if we could make reservations for tomorrow and it was wide open with no line. So fun! So we bought our tickets and turned a corner to be suddenly drawn in by the presence of that which we’d come to see.
David.
When I look at him, I remember the confidence with which he said he would fight the giant. No doubt. No fear. Total assurance that he would prevail because God was with him. Such confidence.
Oh that my eyes could shine with such a powerful amount of certainty!
I remember this moment like it was yesterday. You can see the sculpture from the end of the hall as you enter the main rooms of the museum, and you can’t even look at anything else.
Taido and I went to museum after museum chasing down works of art and stories I’d read about the artists. We stood under Brunelleschi’s Dome. We saw The Passion of Artemisia. I felt like I had become friends with Mary Magdalene after so many days of seeing her mourn. I loved the stories of the Bible being told through images, and I imagined what it would be like to tell and to learn them this way rather than through reading them. What would it be like to live a life of walking through churches and galleries until the images became landmarks in my subconscious?
