#13 Jan.

[newyorkthegoldenage]

Seeing in The New York Times the photograph of Helen Keller in the Observation Tower of the Empire State Building, I [Dr. John H. Finley] wrote her asking her what she really “saw” from that height. This remarkable letter written by her came in answer and was published in The New York Times Magazine. It will be agreed by all who read it that, as she said, she “beheld a brighter prospect than my friends with two good eyes.”

January 13, 1932 Dear Dr. Finley:

After many days and many tribulations which are inseparable from existence here below, I sit down to the pleasure of writing to you and answering your delightful question, “What Did You Think ‘of the Sight’ When You Were on the Top of the Empire Building?”

Frankly, I was so entranced “seeing” that I did not think about the sight. If there was a subconscious thought of it, it was in the nature of gratitude to God for having given the blind seeing minds. As I now recall the view I had from the Empire Tower, I am convinced that, until we have looked into darkness, we cannot know what a divine thing vision is.

Perhaps I beheld a brighter prospect than my companions with two good eyes. Anyway, a blind friend gave me the best description I had of the Empire Building until I saw it myself.

Do I hear you reply, “I suppose to you it is a reasonable thesis that the universe is all a dream, and that the blind only are awake?” Y—es—no doubt I shall be left at the Last Day on the other bank defending the incredible prodigies of the unseen world, and, more incredible still, the strange grass and skies the blind behold are greener grass and bluer skies than ordinary eyes see. I will concede that my guides saw a thousand things that escaped me from the top of the Empire Building, but I am not envious. For imagination creates distances and horizons that reach to the end of the world. It is as easy for the mind to think in stars as in cobble-stones. Sightless Milton dreamed visions no one else could see. Radiant with an inward light, he sent forth rays by which mankind beholds the realms of Paradise.

But what of the Empire Building? It was a thrilling experience to be whizzed in a “lift” a quarter of a mile heavenward, and to see New York spread out like a marvellous tapestry beneath us. There was the Hudson—more like the flash of a sword-blade than a noble river. The little island of Manhattan, set like a jewel in its nest of rainbow waters, stared up into my face, and the solar system circled about my head! Why, I thought, the sun and the stars are suburbs of New York, and I never knew it! I had a sort of wild desire to invest in a bit of real estate on one of the planets. All sense of depression and hard times vanished, I felt like being frivolous with the stars. But that was only for a moment. I am too static to feel quite natural in a Star View cottage on the Milky Way, which must be something of a merry-go-round even on quiet days.

I was pleasantly surprised to find the Empire Building so poetical. From everyone except my blind friend I had received an impression of sordid materialism—the piling up of one steel honeycomb upon another with no real purpose but to satisfy the American craving for the superlative in everything. A Frenchman has said, in his exalted moments the American fancies himself a demigod, nay, a god; for only gods never tire of the prodigious. The highest, the largest, the most costly is the breath of his vanity.

Well, I see in the Empire Building something else—passionate skill, arduous and fearless idealism. The tallest building is a victory of imagination. Instead of crouching close to earth like a beast, the spirit of man soars to higher regions, and from this new point of vantage he looks upon the impossible with fortified courage and dreams yet more magnificent enterprises.

What did I “see and hear” from the Empire Tower? As I stood there ’twixt earth and sky, I saw a romantic structure wrought by human brains and hands that is to the burning eye of the sun a rival luminary. I saw it stand erect and serene in the midst of storm and the tumult of elemental commotion. I heard the hammer of Thor ring when the shaft began to rise upward. I saw the unconquerable steel, the flash of testing flames, the sword-like rivets. I heard the steam drills in pandemonium. I saw countless skilled workers welding together that mighty symmetry. I looked upon the marvel of frail, yet indomitable hands that lifted the tower to its dominating height.

Let cynics and supersensitive souls say what they will about American materialism and machine civilization. Beneath the surface are poetry, mysticism and inspiration that the Empire Building somehow symbolizes. In that giant shaft I see a groping toward beauty and spiritual vision. I am one of those who see and yet believe.

I hope I have not wearied you with my “screed” about sight and seeing. The length of this letter is a sign of long, long thoughts that bring me happiness.

I am, with every good wish for the New Year,

Sincerely yours, Helen Keller

Top photo: Times Wide World Photos/Letters of Note Bottom photo: Associated Press

#vintage New York #1930s #Helen Keller #Empire State Building #Empire State Bldg. #Jan. 13 #13 Jan. #blind #deaf #imagination #seeing blind #how blind see #idealism #materialism #American materialism

[crawfishcomic]

Chili

#CrawfishComic #Jan 13 2023

[heartorbit]

HAPPY NEWONDERHOY YEAR 🍡

#its still jan 1st somewhere . right #HAPPY NEW YEAR. HAPPY NEW YURI #project sekai #pjsk #an shiraishi #prsk #tsukasa tenma #proseka #Hatsune amiky acolorful Stage[FOGHORN] #inknow i csnt write kanji OK stroke order has me fucked up #redraw of last years to thank them both for arriving with 30k gems to spare vut i [cough] i [wheeze] #i kind of think last years was. more slayful...[throws a smokebomb and when it clears im laying unconscious on the ground] #OK last year i remember literally drawing that for like 13 hours snd the anstomy isnt goo so whatevvrr #my life is so jover january 10th btw EMU. {EMU. EMU. EMU #WAAAAH #college starts that week but heh.. luckily my class ends before the event. here we go again #and then nenesnlim and the ruis lim and then (redacted) right after and then peace. and then CORALINTHHEBIX AND WEDDIGN EMU ANDPANDMONIUM A #and i have miku expo and a convention in may.. ehhhahe #im finish um one cosplay hopefilyl for cny but thenother ummm stipid fuckifng tdukasa maybe ill finish it for showtime event mahbe not #i hate her. to the shredder #EMU. oooh emu. Ok sorry goodnight

[diioonysus]

art + hair pieces

#orientatalin by edouard frederic wilhelm richter #cant find this one #this one either its tougher than you think to reverse search them #portrait of josephine de beauharnais by francois gerard #the marquise de seignelay and two of her sons by pierre mignard #infantin isabella clara eugenia at age 13 by alonso sanchez coello #grand duchess alexandra pavlovna romanova of russia but i cant find the artist #marie frederike amalie queen of greece by joseph karl stieler #empress josephine by jean louis viger #queen anna of hungary and bohemia by hans maler #elisabeth of austria by jooris van der straaten #anne wortley by paul van somer #manuela gonzalez velazquez tocando el piano by zacarias gonzalez velazquez #adelingen by heinrich friederich fuger #the unequal marriage by vasili pukirev #idealised portrait of a young women as flora by bartolomeo veneto #a portrait of a noble lady by jan adam kruseman #changing the letter by joseph edward southall #lorelei by james c christensen #the crucifixion by jacob cornelisz van oostsanen #saint dorothy i think this is the title its kinda confusing by i cant find the artist #saint barbara by ambrosius benson #virgin mary by hubert van eyck and jan van eyck #princess maria alexandrovna by ivan makarov #ladies in the blazon room of the winter palace by adolphe ladurner #queen marie therese and her son by charles beaubrun #boyar's wife by konstantin yegorovich #dont know the title but its by barthel bruyn the elder #queen isabella ii of spain by unknown artist #portrait of maria therese charlotte of france by antoine-jean gros

[kabutoden]

HAPPY HOMESTUCK DAY EVERYONE!!! 413!!!

#homestuck #homestuck comic #413 #homestuck 413 #hehehehe this is how i was drawing melosas redesign before i drew her in bugstuck #SHES SOOOO CUTE EEEE SHES 14 YEARS OLD HERE AND SUCH A LITTLE GUY #i adore her so much its crazy she had so much silly and so much gender #BEST FRIENDS!! moirails!! this comic has been brewing since jan but i hadnt finished til now. originally i thought i had nothing 2 post 2 c #SO YAYYYYYYY #POSTING POSTING #homestuck oc #fantroll #melosa tranql #i made her one year older than me so shed be more mature. and people online would think I was more mature. when i was 13 #LOL

[leopardom]

a day in Jan’s world

#joker out #jan peteh #leopardom gifs #series: the discord vol.13

[umlewis]

cute dogs help lewis answer fan questions!

#lewis hamilton #f1 #formula 1 #fic ref #fic ref 2024 #not a race #2024 not a race #pre-season #pre-season 2024 #with george #(note to self: not sure when actually shot. uploaded to yt jan 13 2024.)

[mikeywayarchive]

Instagram story by jaredleto

[Jan 14, 2024]

#mikey way #jared leto #shannon leto #thirty seconds to mars #live #ig #ig story #2024 #jan 2024 #1/14/24 #1/13/24 #anaheim #honda center #iheartradio #iheartradio alter ego #iheartradio alter ego 2024 #dd spider tattoo #photo #originals

[the-restisconfetti]

🇱🇹 ❤️ 🇺🇦

#ukraine #lithuania #january 13th #sausio 13 #jan 13 #russian aggression #2023 #1991

[soon-palestine]

#indonesia #jakarta #palestine #gaza #free palestine #jan 13 2024

[icewindandboringhorror]

reminders of the passage of time moodeboard

#my blog is in his last year of middle school. he'll be off to high school next year (at least I think so..? 13 yrs old is usually 8th grade #at least from my experience. 9th graders are usually 14. 10th are 15. etc. etc. and then you're in 12th grade #and graduate high school usually 17yrs old.) ANYWAY.. wow he is so ancient.. #maybe he's still in a preteeny early teen emo phase or something.. I hope he gets some black and white striped armwarmers and black eyeline #r for his birthday. Maybe an MP3 player of course. Though because I don't really like most alternative music and he is my son he's actually #not allowed to listen to metal or pop punk or emo rock whatever stuff. I open the mp3 player and pre-stock it with only #disco and funk and classical music. he can have a little chiptune or techno stuff as a treat (sometimes emo adjacent maybe more #scene. I think a lot of scene kids were into that more.. emo's weird eccentric brother)) #Also he starts taking iron pills his 13th birthday because he's probably incredibly anemic just like me #so on and so forth and et cetera (I'm just being silly.. I am not pro-controlling your children down to whatmusic they #listen to or etc.etc. lol) #THOUGH I love that it's in january... january is one of my favorite months if not my favorite. yeeaaay #just such a nice cool month. I like that it's the start of the year mostly and that it's sometimes snowy here. Like where I live nov - dec #isnt really actually snowy?? You always associate those winter Months with snow but I think snow happens later on this coast #so it's more like Jan - March or even april sometimes. Though that may just be climate change lol.. But it's cool that Jan is winter AND #ACTUALLY snowy. plus the Beginning Of Year vibes and energy.. hrm... nice nice.. ANYWAY #AND this is not even my first tumblr blog. I had a different one before it I think.. #evviilll to be on one website for so long lol.. Very thankful that most websites I used to use as a 10 year old or whatever #are now defunct. There's something weird about how humans are just creating endless streams of words and pictures and all of this stuff #and it just goes out into the void and stays there long after the person themselves has forgotten it. not even like 'oh no what if i said #something bad!!' but more just the general sense of.. people create so much more ideas than they can actually hold in their heads. nobody #remembers exactly word for word every post they've ever made or etc. It's like parts of yourself that you've externalized and then fade awa #from you but they're still you but they're not so you just have little snapshots of yourself in time floating around entirely unbenknownst #to you. like making clones of yourself and then forgetting you did so but every once in a while going 'shit... there's clones out there.. #of me and I don't even have track or awareness of them anymore.. what an odd concept..' etc. not EXACTLY like that ghbj..you know what I me #n.. or maybe you dont.. hrmm... ANYWAY #I am just now slightly recovering from my most recent mysterious illness spell and etc. so I would like to post more again and mAYBE even #do a costume if I'm being ambitious.. but after so many times of being randomly stricken by problems I'm now fearful of ever being too #hopeful lol.. always like 'I would like to go to the grocery store tomorrow! .... MAYBE.. if i CAN.. possibly... NOT getting my hopes up'. #etc. etc. etc. every statement has a caveat and a backup plan and so on and so forth and such is life.. anyway. happy birthday evil tumblr

[aprilblossomgirl]

Jan Ployshompoo as Phinya

Home School นักเรียนต้องขัง (2023) Episode 13

Amin, do you know what my dream is? My dream is to become a mother. I want to have kids and my own family. That’s why I believe I can be happy with my marriage life though I don’t love him.

#home school #home school the series #home school ep 13 #phinya #jan ployshompoo #*gifs #**home school character #homeschooledit #thaidramaedit #asiandramaedit #i see jan i gif #but at what cost. this is too heartbreaking.

[daisiesonafield-blog]

literally sobbing why am i not in los cabos, mexico right now aaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh

#god has their favorites and it shows #louis in mexico #louis january 2023 #jan 13 2023 #jan 2023 #louis take me on vacation w you #tank top louis #sobbing #jelly beans #oli wright #spot the gringos

[sammy-writes-sometimes]

Egg Cracking + Rarepair

Word count: 479

---------

It was fine, she was fine, nothing bad would happen. At least that's what reverberated through Zedaph's head for the past month since she'd moved in with Tango.

The two had managed to find a half decent apartment, one that even allowed pets, which she was thankful for even if neither of them currently had any.

But there was something at the back of her mind, bothering her constantly; Tango wasn't happy.

Which could be simple, there could be many reasons for Tango's unhappiness, but Zedaph was (at least among close friends) sometimes notoriously bad at overthinking things.

So here they stood, the sheep busy taking on her part of the chores – Tango had forgotten to fold the laundry for a full week… again… – in the living room while the netherborn cleaned the dishes in the attached kitchenette.

“Hey, Zed… do you– do you ever feel like you don't belong in your skin?” Tango says cautiously.

“What do you mean?” Zedaph asks, though something pulls and sounds so familiar to her ears. A feeling not yet said or revealed in full.

“Just– I don't know, like your reflection isn't yours? Not like– well maybe…” They go on. “Like you don't fit. Your body is wrong but like in some ways it's right.”

And there it was, bright as day and now left out in the open on a hanging thread.

She stood from the couch, walking over to Tango. “What exactly do you mean, Tango?”

They threw their lip, placing a plate onto a rack to dry.

“I don't– I don't know… that's the problem…” They say shyly. “You– I've been thinking about when you first came out to me and it– it almost sounded right but– but I don't– being a ‘man’ doesn't feel right… but neither does being a women…”

Zedaph places a hand on Tango's back then moves the other to his chin, forcing the netherborn to look at her.

“Everyone's feelings about gender are different, Tango.” She says gently. “Sometimes– sometimes it isn't even one to the other. Sometimes it's both or neither or everything under the sun.”

Tango blinks, confusion then crosses their face slowly as the meaning digs deeper.

“Wait, that's an option? Those are options?”

She can't stop herself from laughing at that, it’s well meaning but–

“I don't have to be either and no one told me?!”

“Yes?”

They back up, hands over their face and screaming like something's been released from their soul. A form of pain gone, replaced by confusion and some type of joy.

“Tango, Tango, are you okay?” Zedaph says through laughter.

“I'm just– I'm happy… I guess…”

“Good.” She tugs lightly on their hoodie. “Because I need you out of this.”

“Wow, at least take me to dinner first.”

---------

“Tango, you’ve worn this for a year straight without washing it and it smells awful…”

“… fine…”

Our ko-fi

#jan 17 2024 #written on: dec 13 2023 #mcyt4tweek2024 #fruit's modern hc au #hc #tango #zedaph #hermitshipping #zedango #tangzed #(we ignoring the fact i forgot this ship had two names...)

[diioonysus]

women + portraits

#portrait of an egyptian woman by unknown #portrait of a lady in oriental headdress by mortiz stifter #mona lisa by leonardo da vinci #portrait of a lady by rogier van der weyden #portrait of ginerva benci by leonardo da vinci #portrait of lady elizabeth keppel adoring a herm of hymen england by sir joshua reynolds #portrait of edith jocelyn by heinrich m. muller #portrait of princess gouramma by franz xaver witerhalter #portrait of a lady wearing a floral wreath by marie genevieve bouliard #portrait of unknown swiss woman by unknown #infantin of isabella clare eugenia at 13 by alonso sanchez coello #portrait of a lady by abbey alston #portrait of a noblewoman by cesare agostino detti #a portrait of a beauty qing dynasty by unknown #portrait of a noblewoman by jan adam kruseman #on a balcony self portrait by marie spartali stillman #portrait of a greek woman by ioannis doukas #portrait of maria manicini by jacob ferdinand voet #unknown by sir frank dicksee #ms charles sabine thellusson by margaret sarah carpenter #portrait of a girl holding a lily by john simmons #girl with vase by leopold carl muller #portrait of a spanish lady by henri-guillaume schlesinger #lady beatrice butler by ellis william roberts #portrait of a woman by felipe santiago gutierrez #an african womab by willem van mieris #1889 moorish girl by francesc masriera #an oriental beauty by franz xavier kosler #an egyptian girl by franz xavier kosler #young girl with veil by albert aublet

[newyorkthegoldenage]

Foolish Bear, 84, left, and Drags Wolf, 75, came to New York on January 13, 1938 to recover from the Heye Foundation (Museum of the American Indian) two sacred skulls of thunderbird deities that they believed would end recent droughts in their native North Dakota. The men were members of the Water Buster or Midi Badi clan of the Hidatsa (Gros Ventre) tribe. This was the first known successful repatriation of Indian objects. They visited President Roosevelt on the way to New York.

Article about this repatriation

Photo: Associated Press via WHNT

#New York #NYC #vintage New York #Native Americans #Gros Ventre #Hidatsa #Water Busters #Midi Badi #repatriation #looted goods #cultural patrimony #Jan. 13 #Heye Foundation #Museum of the American Indian #January 13