Paa Rangel by Theodore Severin Kittelsen
Theodor Severin Kittelsen’s Paa Rangel is a stormy, mischievous illustration where a figure struggles through slanting rain beneath a great umbrella, while strange comic faces peer in from the edge. The scene has Kittelsen’s familiar blend of folklore, humour, unease, and wild weather.
WikiArt lists it as an 1894 Art Nouveau illustration from the series Har dyrene Sjæl?
Paa Rangel by Theodore Severin Kittelsen
Today I am ill. Not the sicky-snotty-vomitty-acheyjointsandinflammation kind of ill. The other kind. The kind that sits on your shoulders and tells you that everything is terrible. The kind of ill that you'd normally attribute to the first bad thing you can find, and obsess over it until you get to retreat to your bed again: telling yourself that you'll feel better in the morning (which you probably will) but
never really believing it. The kind of ill that makes you wish there was something more physical, and you're almost disappointed to see the same bones and blobs and wobbly bits that make up you every day - just working away as normal as you'd expect them to. The kind of ill that leaves you flabbergasted to see the sun shining and strangers smiling and absolutely nothing blowing up or catching fire.
The cure is to power through, not belligerently but pro-actively, until your capsized metaphor-boat rights itself: stops letting water in and you paddle past the eddies to calmer banks. You use structure and knowledge as an oar, and try not to let yourself throw up from navigating such ridiculous symbolism, because you know that ultimately this feeling will pass. And when you moor up on pleasant shores, there will be just your boat and you: nothing blowing up, nothing on fire, nothing on your shoulders any more. I'll see you there.
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