I took Friday to rest and recuperate after my fall on the ice on Thursday. I was feeling much better Saturday, so I went o Burlington with a friend to have dinner. I have to admit that was a mistake. I drove, and while normally driving doesn’t bother me, I could not use my cruise control (salt and snow sludge on the roadways obscures the collision control sensors, so the cruise control won’t work), and that made it uncomfortable for my injured hip. By the time I got back from Burlington, my hip was in agony and I did not have a full range of motion in that leg.
To pamper my hip, I spent the day with a heating pad on my hip and binged RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 6. It helped, and I am feeling much better. My shoulder has improved the most, because I still have a bit of pain in my hip. I’m hoping I feel better when I wake up this morning. It just takes time to heal.
For the word of the Lord is right, and all His work is done in truth. He loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.
—Psalms 33:4-5
The above verse made me stop and think. Psalms 33:4 is correct, “For the word of the Lord is right, and all His work is done in truth,” but what about Psalms 33:5, “He loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord”? I have no doubt that God loves the righteous and justice, but when I look around me today, whether it’s the hateful trumpist factions in American politics, the possible invasion of Ukraine by the autocratic Putin, or one of the most repressive regimes in history hosting the Olympic Games, which is supposed to be about unity, sportsmanship, and peace, I find it hard to see that “the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.” Instead, I see a world in which hatefulness is becoming more common than goodness.
Jesus describes his purpose, at the start of his ministry in Luke 4:18-19, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” The world today, and many Christians in it, are greedy, selfish, and hateful. We need to get back to the ministry that Jesus started: one that helps the poor, heals the brokenhearted, and heals the sick. We need to stand up to our captors and oppressors. We need to follow Jesus’s example and “proclaim liberty to the captives” and “set at liberty those who are oppressed.”
To defeat the oppressors in the United States, we have to go to vote and make sure the trumpists lose at the polls. We need to stand up to international bullies like Vladimir Putin, and loudly call out the Chinese for the oppression and genocide of its citizens. We need to elect leaders who will try to make sure “the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.” We have to do more for the poor and oppressed in this world. We need to make healthcare a right, not a privilege of the wealthy.
Martin Luther King, Jr. said it best in his “I Have a Dream” speech:
And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.” … I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today! … With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.
I’m embarrassed to admit this, but I slipped and fell on the ice again yesterday. This time it wasn’t down my stairs. At least when I fell down the stairs, I landed in snow, and while going down the stairs was still painful, especially hitting my arms trying to grab the railing, the steps were covered in snow and somewhat cushioned my fall. Yesterday, I hit a solid sheet of ice that was on top of our parking area.
I have a set of spikes that fit into he bottom of my shoes, which I thought were in my apartment but when I went to look for them as I was leaving, they weren’t where they should have been, so I knew they were in my car. I was doing my best to be very careful, but all it takes is one misstep and as slippery as the ice was yesterday (it was lightly raining which added to the slipperiness), it was way too easy to misstep.
I’m not in as bad a shape as the guy in the picture above (nothing seemed to be broken), but one butt cheek is pretty sore, since that’s what I landed on. I also hurt my shoulder and neck as I was going down. I’m either going to have to be much more careful or learn how to fall correctly. My poor body just can’t take this crappy winter weather.
“Gentlemen with Golf Clubs,” 1909, by J.C. Leyendecker
Joseph Christian Leyendecker’s life, career, and love is captured in a new film, Coded: The Hidden Love of J.C. Leyendecker, which I watched the other day on Paramount+. The documentary shows Leyendecker’s enduring influence on American culture and LGBTQ+ representation in advertising, as well as the relationship with his partner, Charles Beach, the muse for Leyendecker’s “Arrow Collar Man.”
Arrow Short Collars, American Advertisement, 1914, by J.C. Leyendecker
The use of men as sexy symbols in advertising would not have existed without the influence of Leyendecker’s art. The German-American artist received training in Paris under the French Art Nouveau movement and imported some of this “Modern Style” to United States. His ad illustrations, which leaned into sexualizing his handsome male subjects, made brands like Arrow shirts fly off the shelves while also defining the image of the early 20th-century American man. Many of his illustrations featured intimate gazes between two gentlemen. Often, if there were two gentlemen and a lady, the two men would be focused on each other and not the woman.
“The Oarsman,” 1916, (Left) and “Man on the Bag,” 1912, (Right) by J. C. Leyendecker
Additionally, Leyendecker painted over 400 magazine covers in his career — over 300 alone for The Saturday Evening Post — essentially creating the design template still in use today. His stock took a plunge along with Wall Street following the Great Depression, when shrinking wallets also meant a return to social conservatism. The public turned away from Leyendecker’s eroticized male forms toward Norman Rockwell, a more traditional illustrator who was mentored by Leyendecker.
Advertisement for Cluett Dress Shirts, 1911, by J.C. Leyendecker
The image below of an Ivory Soap advertisement from 1900 is one of his early pieces before he met Charles Beach; however, it is a great example of the coded messages in many of his works. Can you spot the “code” in this image? Once you see it, you’ll probably never not see it.
“Ivory Soap It Floats,” Ivory Magazine, 1900, by J.C. Leyendecker
In honor of the (Winter) Olympics beginning this week, I’ll end with this 1932 edition of The Saturday Evening Post. Strangely, the conservative, anti-New Deal, and middle class family orientated publication had what is (to most modern eyes at least) a sexualized ‘gay’ image of the U.S. Olympic Eight on its cover, painted by Leyendecker. This was not the only time that Leyendecker put semi-naked men on a pedestal as you’ve seen in some of his other illustrations.
The Closet Professor 