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From The Restory - Conversations On The Journey (225)

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Existential Health

Uncertainty, Mortality, Identity vs Role




The Conversation 



 


Elements From The Conversation 






Creative Piece



Alberto Giacometti - L’Homme qui marche (The Walking Man) 1960


Alberto Giacometti’s famous bronze figure L’Homme qui marche (The Walking Man) depicts a man walking, his arms hanging loosely at his sides. It has been described as a humble image of an ordinary man, yet at the same time a powerful symbol for all of humanity. Giacometti saw the natural balance of the steps as an image of man’s own vitality.

The figure has no clothes, no professional features, no facial expression of bravado. He is simply human—fragile, alone, but still moving. It visually expresses that question: Who are you when you no longer “wear” your roles? You are not the armor of your work or efficiency; you are the essence that breaks through when everything is stripped away.

There is a deep irony in the fact that Giacometti's 'L'Homme qui marche I' became one of the most expensive works of art in history when it was sold in February 2010 for $104.3 million. This meant that the piece was the most expensive sculpture in the world until May 2015, when another Giacometti work, L'Homme au doigt, surpassed it.

The fact that the world is willing to pay more than $100 million for a sculpture of a "bare, fragile man" says something profound about what we ultimately value most. When all money, structures, and roles disappear, we recognize the priceless value of the human being himself.


Music

When Eva Cassidy sings Songbird, there is no grand display, no elaborate production, no attempt to impress. There is just a guitar and her pure voice.

Cassidy died of cancer in 1996 at the age of just 33, long before the world truly discovered her talent. Her early death gives her rendition of the song a special meaning. It sounds like both a gentle farewell and an embrace of the present moment. In the context of our own mortality and the search for who we are when all our roles fall away, Songbird brings us back to the most essential core: a space where we can take in what really matters, and simply be amidst the wind on the heath.




With our love.


George & Matilda 







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