Touch the Painting!

I was recently visiting some family in New Jersey and we began discussing art.  I mentioned how difficult it can be for me in museums because I so badly want to touch all the art I see.  I long to have a tactile experience of the beauty my eyes are beholding, especially in relation to the super thick oil paintings, where you can see layers upon layers of paint and texture.  In this house was just such a painting.

“Go and touch it,” my Uncle told me.  

“No way,” I said back.  “If I touch it, the oils in my hands will damage the painting and it will degrade and be ruined.”  

“Come here,” he said, standing and walking towards the painting.  “This is my painting. If weren’t for me, this would have gone in the landfill long ago.  Touch it.”

“No!  I can’t!”

With complete calm and holding eye contact, he put his hand out… AND TOUCHED THE PAINTING!!”

I freaked.  My hands covered my head as I turned and walked as quickly away as I could.  It was too much for me.  YOU DON’T TOUCH PAINTINGS!

Eventually I calmed down.  The owner of the painting, the one responsible for it, touched it.  He encouraged me to do the same.  This wasn’t a museum with priceless, historical paintings.  It was the hallway.  The only value of this painting was in the enjoyment of it.  Recognizing how much I would enjoy being able to feel this painting, my Uncle pushed me (lovingly) outside of my comfort zone so that I could enjoy this painting the way I had always wanted to enjoy paintings.  I washed my hands, took a deep breath…. and touched the painting.

It was everything I had dreamed of and so much more!

I learned a valuable lesson on that trip - and the painting was just one piece of it.  My Uncle asked me several times that weekend, “Do we own our stuff, or does our stuff own us?”

Of course, I don’t recommend touching priceless works of art in museums or gallery pieces.  The rules against touching art are in place for good reason.  But those rules exist in the museum or the gallery.  They did not exist in that house and they did not apply to that painting.  

So, where does your “stuff own you?”  Do you not use the cloth napkins to keep them nice for company?  That was (until just the other day) one of mine.  Look for where you stuff owns you.  Explore why.  Are the rules you have in place really applicable, given the circumstances?  Is the “stuff” a limitation rather than something you enjoy?  

We get to set our own rules around our stuff.  It can own us, or we can own it.  You get to choose.  So, go ahead….touch the painting!