GARDEN OF GOOD & EVIL

Bird Girl

Telfair Museum 

Savannah, GA

This statue was created by Sylvia Shaw Judson,the sculptor who sculpted the statue of Mary Dyer which is on the campus of Earlham College. For years the above statue was in the Bonaventure Cemetery in Savannah Georgia. It was moved to a safer place after it gained fame through the movie Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil which was set in Savannah.

Cover Photo for novel Midnight In the Garden of Good and Evil

"For Jack Leigh, his iconic moment came in 1994 when he was commissioned by Random House for the cover of John Berendt’s non-fiction novel Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. The book was about the repercussions that the murder of a local male prostitute and its subsequent trial that ensued. The titular “the garden of good and evil,” referred to Bonaventure Cemetery in Savannah, Georgia. Bredent suggested to Leigh to go to the cemetery for a suitable subject." 

This post would not appear on this blog were it not that Sylvia Shaw Judson became a convinced Quaker in midlife. She was instrumental in beginning the Lake Forest Meeting

In a simple book of pictures and quotations Judson showed how art could evoke a state of mind which encouraged spiritual values. On the website of the Telfair Museum we read:

"In The Quiet Eye: A Way of Looking at Pictures (1982), Judson emphatically connected her Quaker beliefs to her aesthetic practices. She emphasized the term 'divine ordinariness,' which she defined as the 'delicate balance between the outward and the inward, with freshness and a serene wholeness and respect for all simple first-rate things, which are for all times and all people.'

These principles of simplicity, equality, and inwardness may very well have been applied to the work that we have now come to know as the Bird Girl. The young figure, plainly dressed, holds two bowls in either hand, which could be interpreted as a gesture of weighing and balancing. The overall simplicity of the composition, or its 'divine ordinariness,' helps explain its enduring charm; the sculpture reveals very little even after prolonged looking and retains an air of compelling mystery. Originally unassumingly titled 'Fountain Figure' (1936), the sculpture stood anonymously in Bonaventure Cemetery until it was featured on the cover of John Berendt’s bestseller Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1994) and the subsequent Clint Eastwood film (1997)."

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The image of the innocent child with arms outstretched, holding two vessels speaks of the choices we are constantly called to make. In the novel that became associated with the picture of the statue, the choice was presented as between good and evil. More often the choice is between self and others, or between following guidance or following the trend, or between truth and falsehood, or between any two things which lead us in opposite directions. The point is that we must choose; indecision is a choice also.   

Picture and words from The Quiet Eye: A Way of Looking at Pictures

by Sylvia Shaw Judson 

Yale University Art Gallery

Grave of William Penn

Edward Hicks

1847

"all in order sweet & lovely"

 William Blake

 

Lean on God

 LEAN ON GOD

By Diane Faison-Mckinzie

2023

God gives the most challenging battles to his strongest spiritual soldiers.

Belief, trust, and prayer are the weapons that I believe God’s soldiers can use to

fight the anxiousness, anger, depression, fear, and exhaustion that becomes the

darkness that covers caretakers, and the person suffering from illness.

Leaning on and trusting the Lord is sometimes the hardest thing to do when a

life-threatening illness becomes the issue that devours the years, months, days,

hours, and minutes in a person’s life; both the person that is ill, as well as the

caretaker.

At the beginning of my caretaker responsibility, I experienced anger and was

confused about why I was experiencing this emotion. I spent several months

praying every morning for an answer. I finally received my “spiritual answer”.

I heard God speak to me, letting me know my anger was perfectly normal. I

was angry because my life had changed; both in my everyday activities as well

as in my marriage. I could no longer go out with my friends as much because my

place now was to be at home; to be there to address whatever needs my

husband may have. We, as a couple, no longer could experience a physical

relationship, or have a nice meal at a restaurant, because my husband now had

cancer of the esophagus, therefore cannot eat solid food. So, I was selfishly

angry.

I began to realize from my “spiritual answer” that I needed to “lean” on God to

take care of my husband and be assured that my emotion was a normal stage I

had to go through in order to take my next step. I then experienced “calmness”,

and I was willing to allow God to fight this battle, and I learned to lean on Him.

They say all these emotions that I had been experiencing, were the same stages

that a person goes through when a loved one dies, so it’s normal.

When you break a foot, hip, or leg, you need support to lean on to function

(like a crutch, walker, or wheelchair). Well, at that time, my life had a “fracture”

in it. So, God was my crutch, my walker, and my wheelchair to lean on and give

me the ability to function, and I am so thankful He was my support. Without

HIM (GOD), giving me his powerful support, I surely would have fallen.

DON’T BE AFRAID TO LEAN ON GOD, HE IS STRONGER THAN YOU

THINK!