We have to keep the wolf from the door… We tell stories to continue ourselves. We all think an exception is going to be made in our case, and we’re going to live forever. And being a human is actually arriving at the understanding that that’s not going to be. Story is there to just remind us that it’s just okay.
Topaz War Relocation Center by Moonlight, Chiura Obata (via)
Chiura Obata was a Japanese emigrant who lived and painted in Seattle, and who lived for years in an internment camp in the Arizona desert after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. He taught art there, painting the mountains that lay out and beyond the squat confines of the camp and encouraging his students—his fellow prisoners—to do the same. If you’re wondering what the appeal of watching a ten-hour documentary series on America’s National Parks is, this is part of it.
Source: asianamericanbooks.com
