Pat Bean's blog

Aging My Way

Some books I read in a day, staying up until the wee hours of the morning to finish them. Other books may take me weeks, which is the case for one of my current reads, Mona’s Eyes by Thomas Schalesser.

It’s a charming story about a grandfather and his 10-year-old granddaughter, Mona, who might be losing her eyesight. But the book is also filled with a layered depth of other events and characters.

Each chapter is short and has the grandfather taking the girl to the Louve (the book was originally written in French) or other places to view a classic piece of art by artists like Seurat, Boticelli, Da Vinci, Rembrandt and Van Gogh.

 Along with a notebook and pen, which usually accompanies any reading I do, I’ve been taking the time to look up each piece of art, and with the help of the grandfather’s explanations and sometimes a bit more research, educate myself as well.

I read Chapter 32 yesterday, and discovered a new artist, one that even rivals my love of Van Gogh, whose starry nights and sunflowers have long enriched my life. The artist is Gustav Klimt, and Mona described his paintings as “explosions.” I agree.

I can’t imagine how I hadn’t come across Klimt earlier in my life. And if I weren’t such an avid reader I might not ever had. Meanwhile, here’s a few tasty tidbits from Mona’s Eyes:

“…life mustn’t only be lived. It must be danced.”

“The image of a woman smiling, with such a disarming smile, is an invitation to smile, too,” in reference, of course, to Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa.  

“Always believe miracles are possible.”

“Sometimes, you really do see only what you want to see!”

“And so, he became aware that he was still learning plenty of things at his age, and after eighty summers, that was wonderful.”

Yes! It is!

Pat Bean is a retired award-winning journalist who lives in Tucson with her canine companion Scamp. She is an avid reader whose mind is always asking questions (many of which are unanswerable), an enthusiastic birder, staff writer for Story Circle Network’s Journal, author of Travels with Maggie available on Amazon (Free on Kindle Unlimited), and is always searching for life’s silver lining.