Karel_Dujardin_-_Boy_Blowing_Soap_Bubbles._Allegory_on_the_Transitoriness_and_the_Brevity_of_Life_-_Google_Art_Project
When Living in Homo Bulla
by Mark Blickley

As a person of refined tastes, I prefer Van Gogh with ears.

I am living a life of the mind, but why does it have to be my mind?

Too many people are as shallow as a serial killer’s graves.

When others lose their way they find apathy.

All diseases are dormant until they attack.

When one is king of a pond, you fear ripples.

Smokers know every puff is a kiss goodbye.

The pressure is not to have pressure.

Errors cause evolution.

I lost weight but have found it.

The key to success is in the shape of a sword.

IMAGE: Boy Blowing Soap Bubbles (Allegory on the Transitoriness and the Brevity of Life) by Karel Dujardin (1663).

NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR: These musings occurred to me during our year-long pandemic. “Homo Bulla” is the Latin phrase for the medieval theory that man lives his life in a bubble.

Blick at MoMA

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Mark Blickley is a New Yorker and proud member of the Dramatists Guild and PEN American Center. His latest book is the text-based art collaboration with fine arts photographer Amy Bassin, Dream Streams. 

PHOTO: The author standing before Socrates by Constantin Brâncuși (1922) at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.