Just recently, my daughter shared some of her poetry with me, where she saw herself as the noble maiden, inhabitant of a medieval castle. And I have further become witness of her beginning interest in the Society of Creative Anachronisms. That is the childlike vision that I have in mind, a vision which metamorphoses the commonplace. We have all seen it at work when we explain the features of life to children, and we probably all have experienced some measure of the child's marvel. That to me is a kind of spirituality.
Art has a way to transform the ordinary into the extraordinary also.
In one of the towers of the fortress, a room had been set aside this summer to display the art of the former German Democratic Republic. These were pieces that the government had sponsored, had paid for, and then had let disappear. But two stood out for me. One painting depicts a stairway, presumably to a subway station. The viewer looks from somewhat below, but not exactly from the bottom of the stairs.