Evening Post and Other Things

I finished Evening Post last Sunday morning just in time to deliver it to the gallery.  I dragged my best friend and former college professor along with me.  It was a great opportunity to spend some time talking about art and life.  Funny the older I get the less I feel I know.  I guess the more you know the more aware you become of what exceeds your knowledge.  Also, when I'm alone painting in my studio I have a lot of time to think about the big questions of life.  More often than not I end up dismantling my philosophical beliefs when I realize that they are founded on false assumptions. 

I huge topic of discussion for us was dealing with getting older, attaining or not attaining life long goals, eventual death and the metaphysics of what happens afterwards.  This is definitely a place where the older I get and the more I think about it - the less definitive my assumptions on all the above become.  I was brought up to believe in reincarnation rather than heaven or hell, from a more new age perspective.  I have to wonder these days if the beliefs I was taught when growing up amount to nothing more than a sugar coating meant to make our eventual death an easier pill to swallow.  If life doesn't turn out the way you like it or death comes early - never fear; this was only another read through.  A real-life video game with endless lives to get it right.  

It might be the punk questioning of authority within me, but considering that in India where the concept of reincarnation is a huge part of Hinduism and their political system prior to the English there was a very strict caste system/ class system in place within their society.  I can't help, but wonder if the concept of reincarnation was developed to keep the lower castes/classes from revolting?  I really do want to believe, but I wonder if it's just shying away from the reality that you have to make every moment count.  

In regards to the other cans filled with worms.  I don't really know where to begin.  My mentor maybe unintentionally is teaching me another lesson.