My wife asked me, as I was working on yet another artist and another Pagina Artis to display his or her work, why are you spending so many hours on artist and their art which she seemed to think was a little peculiar for me to do. When one was done then I had to do another again and again and again. She wondered to herself, "Will there be an end to this obsession?" I saw a look of bewildered puzzlement on her face as no readily given or articulated response came quickly from my lips. This wise Athena then spoke again to me. Senex Magister, you must tell me what is it that intrigues you so much. To add to her confusion and her probable frustration I said in my usual and normal harmonious tone that my deep voice projects so well that "I had no simple answer to such a 'query'." She stood up and said that there must be more, and I looked into her beautiful green eyes as I said, "of course there is".

When you have a chronic illness and disability as I do, you have time and sometimes too much time to consider and ponder on the nature of the world that for some unknown reason you were placed. Why wasn't it the sixteenth, seventeenth, eighteenth, or even the nineteenth century? Are we the victims of circumstance or is there an intelligent design in some 'time space continuum' that we simply are not able to understand? I am sure that your answer is just as valid as any I might have. Yet, I do find myself thinking about my own mortality more often than when I was a picture of youthful vitality such as Adonis (would that such a thing could have ever been a possibility).

This has lately ended up with writing normally a poem of some sort. I will never lay claim to being a literary artifex but you will find them emotional or at least I think you will. Iustitia is a right that should belong to Humanity just as Art should.

Lucifera

She brings light to my world where I too
often see the darkness of hopelessness.
It is a darkness that was born out of a gloom that said
what can you do or say that has value of worth.

I was in a torment of such anguished and tortured thoughts
to believe that my efforts would be mere futility.
I cried within a soul torn between despair and hope
thinking that Iustitia had perished and taken away to Dis.

Is she to wander in her own purgatory senseless from her
failure to restore fairness and equity to the law?
The Lethe with her waters of forgetfulness will not appease
the sacrilege suffered by Iustitia at the hands of man.

The value of Justice must be cherished and loved by all
if we wish it to protect the natural rights of our shared humanity.
Lady Diana comes to wipe away my tears and bear her torch of light
to guide our path as you and I restore health and strength
to the true Lucifera of Iustitia.

~ Senex Magister