Randy Elrod's Blog, page 8

I Survived Hell

As anyone who knows post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) will tell you, days and nights can be unpredictable. It can be the brightest day, in the loveliest place, or the most cozy night, nestled in cotton sheets, and you still feel like your being is sucked dry. I fight a relentless battle with shame, fear, guilt,...

The Artist as Dionysus

Let us give masculinity back its flowering wand of reciprocal relationship with the natural world.Let us call Dionysus to the gates of our cities and homes.A man who can dance with plants and honor beasts, a man who can be a woman and an androgen and an animal, is more than a gender.He is a...

Dionysus

Original Graphite Sketch with Watercolor 60 x 46 cm Dionysus, the son of the virgin, bringing the counterpart to bread: wine and the blessings of life’s flowing juices. His blood, the blood of the grape, lightens the burden of our mortal misery. It is his blood we pour out to offer thanks. And through him,...

What Grabs Your Attention?

In 1817, Robert Owen coined the slogan: Eight Hours’ Work, Eight Hours’ Rest, Eight Hours’ Recreation. However, today, it feels like more and more leisure time is being coerced from us and not enjoyed by us. If paying attention is essential to life, then what (and who) grabs our attention determines who we are. In his book The...

I Lost A Hero Yesterday: A Tribute

On this messy journey called life, if we are fortunate, there comes a person who changes our lives forever for the better. I remember, as if it were yesterday, in the Spring of 1977 (48 years ago), walking into the office of the Chairman of the Music Department of Lee College in Cleveland, Tennessee. My...

Hermosa

Watercolor Wash and Graphite on Handmade Paper 26 x 36 cm Hermosa is Spanish for beautiful.

The Art of Getting Lost

We decided to get lost yesterday. I had read about the art of getting lost on a placard in the Museu d’Història de Barcelona. But I had never purposely gotten lost and wanted to try it. So we took the tram, then the metro to Liceu, and walked through Old Town to El Born, to one...

Writing and Painting the Hidden Things that People Dare Not Face or Say

Ah, the secrets we keep, the longings and desires we hide. We are afraid to be honest with others (and sometimes, rightly so); tragically, we are scared to be honest with ourselves. If you dare, play a game with me.   Look, in your mind, at this photograph. Is it of a nude (or would...

My Biggest Regret

I regret wasting decades of my life while consuming media: mainstream media like the NYTimes, Axios, Politico, CNN, et al., and social media like Google, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Threads. For some people, these may be good things, but for me, they became an increasingly unhealthy addiction. I firmly believe a porn addiction is far...

The Greatest Country In The World?

*First, A Note to My Courageous Readers: As we enter 2025, my weekly goal for these writings is to reflect what I feel are the essentials of life: sensuality, curiosity, communion, and freedom. I am grateful to have the freedom to write about things that are important to me, to be free to write in...