Toward the end of July a friend recommended that I read the Letters of Vincent Van Gogh. He said that as a pastor and an artist I would really like them and that it had been his favorite book.

Prior to that all I knew about Van Gogh was that he was crazy. That he cut off his ear and gave it to a prostitute. That he painted Starry Night. Even though I'd seen the PBS dramatization of Vincent's life I essentially knew nothing about him.

On the day of the Solar Eclipse the book arrived in the mail.

What I've learned from reading it is that while Vincent surely suffered from severe depression, at the least, he was also a caring and passionate man. He valued beauty, the land, children, animals and the marginalized. He was driven and committed to his craft. A craft, by the way, that he didn't truly realize until he was 28 and then only after several failed attempts at living a "normal" life.

Since then I have been somewhat obsessed with Van Gogh. I see in my own life many similarities and points of comparison that make his life inspiring to me.
Like Vincent I believe that my spiritual experience must have a radical result in my life or else they don't seem worth practicing.

Like Vincent romance is a bit of a puzzle

Like Vincent I desire to become something, to mean something, to be true to myself and to feel deeply and tenderly.

Like Vincent at the start of his career as an artist, I am 27 years old.

The more I learn about this genius the more it bothers me that people write him off as crazy. That people ignore the more than eight hundred paintings he made in his lifetime in favor of only recognizing The Sower and Starry Night is baffling to me. When Vincent Van Gogh is given the label of "tortured artist" it makes his struggle cheap. It promotes an unsympathetic and two-dimensional understanding of a complex and, I believe admirable, human being.

In reflecting on Vincent's short life and monumental work I can only come up with gratitude. I want him to know what his work meant to the world and means to me. He only sold one painting during his life but the work was worthwhile. I wanted to recognize that and honor his life and struggles.

I hope this song conveys that.