Dear Sara,

I am now forty-two years old, and I’ve traveled. I went to the Vatican, and I saw the Sistine Chapel, and I thought of painting with words and maps.

I want you to know that this journey was difficult, and it’s not apparent here in the writing. You were not always happy awn this journey, and you cried, because you wanted to be married to someone who was not the right man.

“And now you are happy,” says Papa. “And now you’re at peace,” says Papa.

So read what you have written here, and believe that God was forming you even then. And you dedicated your trip to a saint who loved you and loved the theatre also, and who loved to help couples find their way.

And now, read this, what you have written awn July 8th, 2007. Here is an excerpt:

“Of all the Renaissance artists, I find Michaelangelo the most fascinating. He was not liked by his contemporaries (Leonardo da Vinci, Bramante, etc.), probably because he was better than everyone else. Mich. was primarily a sculptor. Probably the best the world has ever seen. His Statue of David in Florence and the Peter at the St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican are spectacular. So when Pope Julius II asked Bramante who should paint the Sistine Chapel, he replied “Mich,” for he knew Mich was not a painter, so he was setting him up to fail. Mich. proposed the Pope a series of panels depicting scenes in the book of Genesis. He hired 4 workers from outside Rome to help him. Later, he fired these helpers, because he discovered that he did indeed know how to paint. Mich’s masterpiece is so interesting because in it, you see the development of a painter. The first panels were too detailed, too small, not as stylized. Later panels are larger and you can see the mastery of the artform that Mich. obtained during this 4 year project.”

Do you think it is a masterpiece though?
Let’s go again with St. Valentine and ask this question in the ether

Because the detail may be beautiful now

And let’s not call anything a masterpiece, and that will be brave

Because here are temporary things, even the planets

They are God’s handiwork, and they are spectacular, yes

And now the scene with me is after the flood and the people are awn a rock, and some are not awn the rock, and thank God we are safe now.

I think I need to see St. Peter again, quite frankly, because it’s David awn my mind, but St. Peter would be lovely to see, and would you like to see Florence again with a dear friend who loves St. Valentine?

I’ll continue when I can, and know that so many times, you were rescued awn this trip, and so many times you acted bravely, and your backpack is still with you, and so are these words in your journal

Be well, and love well