PARABLE – Kathy’s Rothko

ART & ORGANISM

Kathy’s Rothko

An excerpt from my diary, fondly recalled.

Early in the courtship of the woman who is now my wife we visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art.   I was eager to share my favorites with her.  Feeling good and strolling together we reached the gallery with some Mark Rothko works –large, imposing, fields of color with a mysterious sense of depth 

Kathy was patient with my enthusiasms and seemed to share many of them, but I lingered with her longer that usual standing before Rotko’s

and she said “So…what’s so special, I could have done this…”  

I impulsively said “Shut up!” and immediately bit my tongue.   This is no way to speak to anyone, no less the woman I am courting!  We continued to stand together, my mind spinning with dread, hers? who knows.  

A minute later she squeezed my arm and said, “I get it.”  

We’ve been married 35 years now