READING THE PAPER

SOLAR FLARES

Rust on paper, 21 x 21 inches

SOLAR RAYS

Rust on Paper, 21 x 21 inches

R U S T ON P A P E R

Why rust? What is rust? Can rust revert back to iron? (Yes, but not worth it.) Is ‘rust’ used as a metaphor? (It is here.)

Is the rusting process a cycle? Is life a cycle? Is a cycle circular? What is a circle? When is a circle a spiral?

So many questions about cycles and circles. So many questions about life and death. Is life a cycle? Or is life a circle?

Rust is the common name for the chemicals that result when iron reacts with oxygen and water. Human beings react to oxygen and water, and will not survive without them. Neither will Earth. Also, Earth wouldn’t exist without iron, as its core is 89% iron, and without it, Earth would collapse in on itself.

Iron is crucial for every kind of organism, organic or inorganic. Without it, would there still be rust? Sure. Rust is an accepted term for the chemicals that result when iron reacts with oxygen and water. But we never think of other elements that react with oxygen and water other than the red flaky stuff that comes from Iron. We just call the result ‘rust.' But, for instance take copper, when exposed to the elements, it develops a patina. Beautiful. Or silver exposed, tarnishes. Easily removed. Iron simply rusts. Gone forever! When humans are exposed to oxygen and water and time, like iron, they corrode. But we don’t say they rust, even though they are around 35-45% iron. We say they age. And there you go. And there some of us go - looking for the fountain of youth.

Aging is a cycle of life. Some call it the Circle of Life; we live, we die. But there is more to that cycle within the circle after circle after circle in which each circle is a cycle. Life seems to be an unfinished circle. We call these circles spirals.

As life is a circle, at the end of a person’s life, life still continues. The cycle of a particular life mau have come to an end, and that circle is closed. But there is also that strange kind of distance involved – something has changed, and then, that circle, continues.........................................................

THE METAPHOR OF RUST. Rust is commonly used to express the slow decay of something due to neglect, since it gradually converts robust iron and steel metal into a soft crumbling powder. In music, literature, and art, rust is associated with images of faded glory, neglect, decay, and ruin.

"War [ like death ] seems to come out of nowhere, like rust that suddenly pops up on iron after a storm."

-Victor Davis Hanson, American Military Historian

**CIRCLES, written by the BEATLES' George Harrison was released as the final track of Harrision's 1982 Gone Troppo album. He wrote the song in India in 1968 while the band was studying Transcendental Meditation with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. The theme of the lyrics is reincarnation. The composition reflects the Hindi cyclical aspect of human existence as the soul continues to pass from one life to the next.

LISTEN AND VIEW THE LYRICS TO HARRISON'S Circles, here.

TJ Mabrey entered this world on November 17, 1941,

and is still going around The Circle, as are her friends MAM and MJR, to whom this missive is dedicated.