The Scream

I was in high school, year 12, in Sydney when I first laid eyes on Edvard Munch's painting of The Scream. 

It grabbed my attention from the page of the book I was reading. You know how, sometimes, something just caught your eye, and in that moment, you paused, stared, enquired, thought, wondered. 

In that few breaths of the passage of time, the world stood still. You are just absorbed, drawn towards and into the painting, into that world. Your pupils dilate unconsciously, animated and interested. 

The colors, the expressions, the sense of space, the strokes of paint - everything screams out for your attention. And beyond that, they scream out for understanding, seeking to connect - an amazing attempt to cross from a 2-D world into your 3-D world of awareness and consciousness.

Questions flood the mind. 

What's going on? What was he screaming about? Or, was he really screaming or was he overwhelmed in amazement? Should Munch's title dictate our interpretation? 

Was the screamer intended to look ghoulish? And yet, there's the essence of human-ness, a strong emotion that touches the viewer's heart. 

Was it a scream of desperation, on the verge of insanity? Has he or she, lost something? Or someone? 

In an increasingly consumer oriented society, I maintain, that we should strive not to consume anything without thinking, pondering, questioning. A passive consumerist takes everything in unquestionably. 

Shouldn't all of life provoke screams of anger or astonishment? Reactions. Responses. Anything but apathy.

Or have we become no better than passing souls, taking in the world, passing time. Has it become a "been there, done that, move on" kind of life? That life becomes one long ride of consumption. The only scream left is a desire to have more and more, without thinking further. That's not a healthy scream!

When we begin to scream about what truly matters in life, that's when we become alive. Truly alive. 

So, what gets you screaming? 

Is it broken marriages? The global child prostitution racket? Or the fact your NFL team lost yesterday's game? Or that your dinner is cold? 

What gets YOU screaming? That tells a lot about you. It tells a lot about me too. Screaming is cathartic. That's good, or bad, depending on what you're yelling about. 

But, beyond this - don't just scream! Dream, and do something positive! Make a change! 

Edvard Munch's character in the scream will be screaming for ages to come. He screams silently, continually, captured on canvas - for anyone who chooses to look at him. 

And in the dark of the art gallery, deep at night, he screams. To no one in particular. He can't change his situation. 

But any viewer can. You can. I can. 

So scream! Come alive!