MESSAGE TO THE FUTURE

This week has given us some particularly hard events to reconcile. The challenge for us to find compassion and seek positive change grows daily.

Winding through the Whitney's retrospective of photographer Danny Lyon, a phrase from a recent NY Times article echoed in my head: "History rhymes rather than repeats." Supremely fitting for this solo show entitled Message to the Future. Mr. Lyon's photos brings us nose to nose into the raw, passionate moments of the 60s fight for race equality. Determined faces of teens stoically occupying diner stools at sit-ins. A young man suspended mid-air during a thrashing from riot police. The impassive face of a Southern police officer staring out at some unknown scene. These images don't flinch and they don't feel fifty years removed from today. They feel alive, relevant and necessary.

In a recent conversation about parenting, religion and other topics we don't usually get to talk deeply about, I suggested that to prepare a child for good decision making in life, the guideline might be to ask herself in each action: "Is this good for me? Is this good for the group? Is this good for the world?" All of these this are on now my mind and in my heart. Waiting to know what action to take.

Message to the Future is on view at the Whitney through September 25.