May 10, 2006 - 11:05 pm
An idea develops (Continued)

Last Saturday Sam participated in three local Special Olympic events, the standing long jump, the 100-meter run and the softball throw. He placed fourth, third and fifth, respectively, in his divisions.  Just like last year, his favorite parts were the awards ceremonies.  Each participant receives a ribbon with very great -and completely equal- fan fair.  I asked Sam, “Which award was your favorite?” He quickly responded, “Fifth.”  After all, five is his favorite number, and he later explained, he had never received a fifth place award before.

The New York Times reported on April 20, 2006 that “parents’ fears are understandable, given an array of studies that found 50 percent to 85 percent of women with mental retardation were sexually assaulted before the age of 18, and 25 percent to 50 percent of men.”

On Saturday, as I looked out over the sea of kids participating in the Special Olympics, it made me sick to my stomach to think that an outrageous percentage of these beautiful children have been sexually assaulted -preyed upon by the larger community because of their vulnerability.

On three separate occasions, I have been lucky enough to see a halo in the sky.  Sometimes when thin high-level cirrus clouds contain hexagonal shaped ice crystals, these crystals act like millions of tiny mirrors and reflect sunlight back to earth in the form of a perfect circle.  The resulting 22° halo is easy to miss since it encircles the painfully bright sun. Halos are surprisingly large, subtle, ethereal, atmospherically fragile and quite rare.  The cloudless sky I wanted in my painting of Sam seemed complete and right when I decided to add a halo.  The idea was now fully developed.  I stretched the largest canvas I dared in the time remaining before the competition deadline… (More next time)

My website: www.davidmlenz.com

Image 1: Photograph of Sam celebrating his fifth place victory

Image 2: Sam and the Perfect World, color sketch © David Lenz