Weltschmerz

"Weltschmerz" is a German word that describes a prevailing mood of melancholy and pessimism associated with the poets of the Romantic Era. It arose from their refusal or inability to adjust to those realities of the world that they saw as destructive.

John Steinbeck wrote about this feeling in "The Winter of Our Discontent."

Well, some of you readers have noticed that I am currently tied up in knots about our current political situation. I trust that this weltschmerz will eventually pass.

Meanwhile I feel the pain as choreographed crazies of the wing-nut media erupt on cue every time a politician opens his mouth to suggest that everyone ought to have access to healthcare.

I think Atlas carrying the weight of the world is a good visual metaphor for "weltschmerz."

The dialogue and delivery is over-wrought and under-thought.

I can hardly believe that so many of my fellow citizens feel that it is more important to spend money we don’t have to keep foreigners dead than to keep Americans alive.

It' feels as if I'm living in the macabre world of Bruegel.

Or worse - the really scary world of Hieronymus Bosch.

This is tough subject matter to paint. How depressed and frightened was this poor artist?

I'm thinking that making "pretty" art is like putting wallpaper on a building as it falls down...if you get my drift.

These are "interesting times" and Weltschmerz describes my current mood.

Give me some time to try to mourn the loss of hope for a better world, use my energies to keep my paintings from being too depressing. And then I'll get back to teaching.