Читать книгу Henri Nouwen and The Return of the Prodigal Son - Gabrielle Earnshaw - Страница 17

The trapeze act was such a vivid image for Nouwen in part because it resonated with his understanding of life as a vast canvas on which to draw our experiences. Like his confrère Rembrandt, who painted, etched, and drew more than ninety self-portraits in his lifetime, Nouwen wrote and rewrote his self-portrait through thousands of diary entries. He saw self-portraiture as a means to self-knowledge and a way to interpret his experiences. He made a practice of asking himself, “What did I do until now and where do I want to go?” He was always reviewing his life through the eyes of God and updating his portrait. He would encourage other people to “paint” their lives as well. Consider the phrasing he uses in a letter to a friend: “Your intuitions are so right and your basic orientation so valuable that a PhD might in the long run offer you the best frame to put your own painting in.”³⁶