Making Room

Make Room by debgrant

The Pieta is a statue depicting Mary, the mother of Jesus, holding the body of her dead son. Michelangelo deliberately made his Pieta disproportionate in size. This re-sizing was a common technique utilized in Renaissance art. Michelangelo's resizing was done in order to address the physical challenge created by an average-sized full-grown woman having to cradle the body of an average-sized full-grown man. The woman in the statue is facing the challenge of making room for the love for her lifeless son, making room for her grief, making room for what comes next.

I was about 9 years old, almost 10 when I saw the Pieta at the New York World’s Fair. I was just a child, but old enough to think and feel about the world around me. Old enough to feel sad and old enough to recognize something true when I saw it. I didn’t know what to do with that sadness or truth at the time, but I was learning. I was able to grow into my adulthood to reflect on the Pieta this week.

This week there are children, 9 and 10 years old, who are being buried. There are men and women whose lives have been reshaped in an instant to make room for their dead children, to make room for their grief, to make room for what comes next.

Art, like life, can be a spectator sport. We look at the statue of the dead Jesus. We look at the woman resized to hold the dead Jesus.  We look away. We move on. We forget.

Or we participate in the art. Like life, we can choose. We enter into the Pieta before us. We become death. We become injustice. We become average human beings making room for our dead, making room for our love and grief, making room for what comes next.

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