HE SWUNG BOTH WAYS BEFORE SWINGING BOTH WAYS WAS COOL

The Blinding of Samson - Rembrandt (1636)

"Of course you will say that I ought to be practical and ought to try and paint the way they want me to paint. Well, I will tell you a secret. I have tried and I have tried very hard, but I can't do it. I just can't do it! And that is why I am just a little crazy."

Rembrandt

They say he swung both ways, as many gifted men and women do.

Though in the early 1600s it was not a trendy thing to do, not nearly as much as it is today.  (You can thank love pioneers like Freddie Mercury for that!)

They buried him with money donated by friends, as was fitting - considering how he spent the last half of his tumultuous life.

No... Rembrandt was not a savvy business man, nor was he eager to understand the underpinnings of accounting and such... but, my word, how he was the definitive master of emotion.

He was a life-long student of the humanity held within the human eye, smile, and brow.

And later in his life, long after is first love and all but one of their children were buried, long after his mistress had been imprisoned, long after his students had gained a higher footing... it was this emotion, this passion, he could effortlessly inflict upon each and every etching and painting.

He was a man of passion, who never learned to live in a world that exploits passion and talent in equal measure.

Considered one of the top Baroque painters of all time, Rembrandt's legacy rests with the likes of Caravaggio, Rubens, and Velázquez, and yet... he lived in insecurity the bulk of his life because he could not afford to remarry.

Which in itself is telling....

Because love is the ultimate educator, for those with heart, for those who feel passion so intensely it burns them up inside.  Love is the balancer - between the unknown limits and exploration.  Love is the dew that settles upon the sunward leaf, and in its prismatic influence keeps it alive.

It tempers the wind, and razes with fire. 

And it is these footprints of love - we see clearly etched within every stroke, every line, every shadow, and every illumination - that guided and propelled Rembrandt into the world's collective view.

And it is love that holds him there still.

Yet too, it is love (that enduring paradox) that saw him famished at the end of his life.

No matter how hard it all seems, no matter how far you might rise, or fall, balance will always follow love.


Namaste,
The Storyteller

(Posted at 12:20 am CST 04/26/2026)

---

---