#Humanist

[jesusinstilettos]

“Oh I’m just not the creative ty-“

Wrong, all humans are inherently creative in some way when their needs are met and they are given the leisure time to pursue hobbies. It came free with your being a social species wired by evolution to love doing stuff with your hands. Don’t define art through a consumerist lens where it’s only worth existing if it’s something someone would buy. Connect with your inner monkey, create to create and let it just be.

[crimson-and-clover-1717]

Stede Bonnet, Renaissance Man (Or an Exceptional Man who Thinks He’s Mediocre)

I’ve posted before about Stede’s love of beauty. He’s an aesthete, finding wonder in art and creative self-care rather than the transcendental. Stede’s a freethinker. He challenges the orthodoxies of his time, rejecting forced heteronormative behaviours, and even questioning the accepted traditions of piracy.

The thing about Stede is he often asks ‘why?’ It’s partly what makes him dangerous to some. This slant towards subversion is much of what Izzy observes and detests. It’s one of many reasons Stede must be kept from Ed. Like a number of Renaissance-style thinkers before him, Stede refuses to go along with the status quo. He is ‘doing something original’, questioning dogma. Many find it ridiculous, bizarre even. And it’s significant that instead Ed finds Stede enchanting, because it demonstrates who Ed might be given the chance to find his own path.

Stede is also a polymath and likely an autodidact - I doubt he learned about ‘insane foliage’ at school. He is self-motived and seems to have knowledge across a broad spectrum of disciplines. Literature, drama, botany, entomology, psychology, art, textiles. Stede’s very much about the life of the mind.

And he’ll approach areas at which he’s not so gifted, such as cartography and sword-fighting, with the enthusiasm of a dilettante; when he can’t succeed the traditional way, he simply subverts the discipline and does it his own. However, the most important thing for me in defining Stede as a Renaissance man is his humanism. People are front and centre. Sometimes that person is himself, and he loses sight of others. But it’s okay as that’s the point. Humanism is partly about being a messy individual who can do better. And Stede is someone who can learn and alter his position when circumstances change. He might not do so in the best way all of the time, but he is a quick-learner and highly-adaptable.

Stede also understands that no culture or institution is bigger than the people within it. The most important thing is human dignity - it’s what he shows and teaches Ned’s crew: that they deserve to be respected as people. Stede also has a strong moral core. When he messes up, he feels it deeply. He demonstrates strong ethics towards the natural world too - he’s absolutely disgusted by turtle vs. crab. Stede believes not so much in human superiority, but human responsibility, and this is the flip side of having dignity as a human being.

Another aspect of Stede’s humanism is his belief that culture should be accessible to all. Some of this might be naivety on Stede’s part rather than a well-thought out philosophy, but he believes in it intuitively. Stede wants the crew to have access to his library despite not recognising they can’t all read. He gives them musical instruments and sports facilities - he’s interested in what makes people flourish. And Stede practically invents art therapy!

His ship is also a safe-space for human relationships to blossom - romantic, platonic, and in between. Zheng’s ship might appear to offer collective harmony, but it’s mandated and dogmatically applied. Opting out of morning tai chi for a 24-hour shagathon might be viewed as an act of dissent. No such big brother is judging you on Stede’s Revenge.

And all of this is because of the man Stede is, and the influence he has on those around him. Sometimes it falls on deaf ears. Many don’t like what Stede’s offering. Others actively rebel against it. But anyone with an ounce of goodness will get what Stede Bonnet is about and embrace it. Stede doesn’t seem to understand his own power, it comes from such an authentic place. For me, it makes him all the more endearing.

[robreyart]

Climbing the Milky Way 24 x 20 inches, Oil, 2014

“A religion, old or new, that stressed the magnificence of the Universe as revealed by modern science might be able to draw forth reserves of reverence and awe hardly tapped by the conventional faiths. Sooner or later, such a religion will emerge.” - Carl Sagan, Astronomer

Cosmic Perspective is not a religion, but it is a science-based way of viewing the universe and our place in it that can provide spiritual fulfillment much like a religion, available to all, with or without a traditional faith. Cosmic Perspective is using the insights of modern science to see the big picture of the world and our place in it with a sense of belonging and connection.

Prints: https://robrey.storenvy.com More about Cosmic Perspective: https://www.robreyfineart.com/about

[eternamenteaudreyhepburn]

Audrey Hepburn photographed by her goddaughter Victoria Brynner at Connie Wald's garden in Los Angeles, 80s.

[upennmanuscripts]

Ms. Codex 849, written in France ca. 1522, is a small book containing recommendations for Francis I concerning the payment and collection of taxes. It's written in a clear humanist script with delightful gold initials alternating red and blue decoration.

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[nobeerreviews]

I am a humanist, which means, in part, that I have tried to behave decently without expectations of rewards or punishments after I am dead.

-- Kurt Vonnegut

(Bistrița, Romania)

[thepersonalwords]

I am the thread of unification that goes through humans of all religions, cultures and ideologies while reinforcing their innate sense of one humanity.

Abhijit Naskar, I Am The Thread: My Mission

[girlactionfigure]

dr.j.e.w

[thebpdcrybaby]

This!!!

[wgm-beautiful-world]

Jewish Museum and Humanist Center in Moscow, RUSSIA

[jesusinstilettos]

When I am on my couch crocheting 225 granny squares to make a blanket and my partner is next to me coding a video game he is making for hours at a time I remember we are really no different than our ancestors. Just funny monkeys in love with using tools and making stuff! Using our hands! Just like our ancestors hundreds of thousands of years ago, I’m just like them fr.

[arabdoll]

I wish I could show you,

When you are lonely or in darkness,

The Astonishing Light

Of your own Being!

Hafez

[robreyart]

Cosmic Perspective is using the insights of modern science to see the big picture of the world and our place in it with a sense of belonging and connection. It’s understanding our scale within the universe - being humbled by a grand and awe-inspiring expanse of space and deep time. But it’s also seeing the very small with a sense of wonder for the staggering complexity of biology, chemistry, and quantum mechanics. In the light of scientific understanding, a little curiosity is quickly rewarded with an enchanting, even spiritual feeling of wonder at the natural world. Making an effort to comprehend the cosmos has a way of putting our lives, troubles, and pride in a helpful frame of reference, allowing us to refocus on what matters most. When we see the Earth as a lonely blue speck of oasis, it naturally sparks feelings of fellowship with all other earthlings. Through this panoramic lens, our terrestrial disputes and nationalist contentions are reduced to insignificance. Empathy and compassion become obvious ways to relate to one another.

In a time when our traditional sources of meaning are growing less resonant, Cosmic Perspective provides a new and inspiring scientific origin story of humanity, united by our shared atomic history as stardust. It provides a sense of kinship with all life on earth in our shared genetic evolution over four billion years of development. It provides a sense of belonging and responsibility as a crew member on this spaceship Earth, of which humanity now sits at the helm. It provides hope in our capacity to reason and understand the cosmos of which we are part, giving us new powers to cure disease and improve our lives. It provides us with purpose and necessitates cooperation to preserve and cherish our tiny planet, the only habitable place we know to exist.

[art-portraits]

Portrait of Ugolino Martelli

Artist: Agnolo Di Cosimo Bronzino (Italian, 1503–1572)

Genre: Portrait

Date: 1540

Medium: Oil on Poplar Panel

Collection: Gemäldegalerie der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin

Description

Ugolino Martelli (1519-1592) was a Florentine aristocrat, humanist, and linguist, whose palace can be seen in the background of the picture. A marble David of the family's collection appears in the background. It was attributed at the time to Donatello, while it is now ascribed to Antonio or Bernardo Rossellino and dated between about 1461 to 1479.

On the scholar's worktable a copy of Homer's Iliad, in Greek, can be seen turned towards the reader. It is open at the beginning of the ninth book, the Embassy to Achilles. A second book, of which only a corner is visible, is inscribed MARO, indicating the Latin poet Publius Vergilius Maro better known as Virgil. Ugolino's left arm is supported by a work by Pietro Bembo, whose sonnets were written in the vernacular. Ugolino lectured on Bembo and had met him by 1539.

[upennmanuscripts]

Today's #YearOfHours is @philamuseum 1967‑30‑121, a 15th c. book of hours, use of Paris. Prayers in French and Latin with occasional decorations, shown here, were added in the 16th century in a humanist hand.

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