The Tao of Krazy::The Way of Love

I forget, sometimes, what wealth there is in the world, and how very many things inspire me, have inspired me through the years – and inspire me still, when I remember them.

George Herriman’s Krazy Kat is one of them….

I drank up Krazy, when I first laid my hands on our copy of The Art of George Herriman. I drank in the images, drank in Herriman’s love for his creations, drank in Krazy’s complete adoration of Ignatz, drank in Ignatz’s utter – if crazy – love of the Kat.

(Krazy, I understand; I’m a bit krazy, myself, when I’m in love… Which is usually. …Erm… always. Ignatz, though… Well, don’t we always love enigmas?)

I thirsted for this reflection, for this justification, for this legitimization of life; and Herriman’s dry wit and charming rapports were, and always are, a refreshing, delicious tonic.

I have, at times since, dared new acquaintenances with one of the more …passionate expressions of Ignatz’s and Krazy’s love, testing their sensitivity to nuance; most all start, twist their faces in perfect alignment with their minds in the attempt to comprehend this very gentlest of arts.

I smile and reassure myself of my suspicions: they don’t know Love, don’t know how to Love.

I wonder if I should explain… as words are redundant, clumsy to those who understand and do little for those who don’t.

It is somewhat like the Tao Te Ching*: “The way that can be spoken is not the Way.”

But, they did try to explain, in the Tao; so I shall, too, in my way,though you must be still to hear…:

Love is everything.
Love is quietly listening to birds waking on a foggy, still-dark morning, the cool air seeping in through the windows and chilling fingers, kissing arms….
Love is writing when no one can hear you, never knowing if anyone will understand you, spilling words onto paper, onto an ethereal page-of-sorts just to let go the flow of words, to portray the passion….
Love is hopeless, miles-away and timeless connection,
The mind’s eye wide, ears ever-pricked, heart stretched out to caress a quarter-, even half-a-world away….
Love is a thousand questions held infinitely ’til answered, a million questions asked and refined, a single question answered and known….

…Love is a cat in love with a mouse, and he in love with her, and the ever-expected brick that flies between.

…I could try harder, write more….

Or I can bask in the beauty that is this cool morning, in the tides of such quiet mornings that are yet captured in this art….

Thank you, George Herriman.

* This link to the Tao Te Ching is not the one I quote, though it is a more beautiful interpretation, and far more simple – and true to the concept of Love about which I write; the one I quote is from memory of a book whose translator I do not recall.

Author: meredithlmm

Entrepreneur • Writer • Poet • Lover of Great Wine, Food, Cocktails, & Brewed Beverages • My best friends are feline 🐈🐈‍⬛🐈‍⬛ View all posts by meredithlmm