Tom Bass - The Falconer:

The dove of beauty - Thine eyes are as the eyes of a dove ...

Last week I watched a great doco on SBS about the Australian sculptor Tom Bass. It was an intriguing show and he is clearly a very interesting and thoughtful man with a striking resemblance to Santa Claus.

In one segment he was describing his totemic philosophy of sculpture and discussing one of his works which he reated for the University of NSW. It depicts a horse rider, a falcon and a dove among other things. He said he got the idea from a poem but unfortunately I can't recall the poet. He also said something along the lines of the falcon of intellect needs to be tethered as unbridled technology could obliterate the beauty of the dove.

And so what should we tether the falcon of our intellect with? Love, compassion, humanity? An openness to the surprises of life. Sometimes they are the best bits. Bits like a diagnosis of DS - doesn't end one world without opening up a whole different and quite spectacular other world. A world that I am blessed to know thanks to Hannah.