By Dave Andrusko
Editor’s note. This selection from a year ago today beautifully illustrates the continuity of life from the very beginning to the very end. The video is a must watch.
We often ask NRL News Today readers for examples of how they broach the delicate subject of abortion. As it happens, their responses usually affirm my intuition and confirm my experiences.
And that is that arguably the best way to reach the undecided is to show them the marvelous complexity of the unborn child through her developmental journey. There is a lesson that is inescapable.
That the human being at the very, very beginnings of her life’s journey is not only the same baby you will hold in your hands nine months later but is also the same human being as she approaches the end of a long life.
For me (although I’m sure there are many others I have not seen), the finest example was “Woman’s life,” an incredible time-lapse video from a while back in which the Korean artist and illustrator Seok Jeong Hyeon (better known as Stonehouse) traced a woman’s life from infancy to very old age.
There are no words—none are needed–only gentle background music from artist Jincheng Zhang. Your eyes are riveted to this very brief (four minutes and twelve seconds) tour of one woman’s life.
At the culmination, we see the proud grandmotherly figure, her eyes closed, her hands clasped as if in prayer. Then an abrupt reversal and we are instantly transported back in time to this same woman when she was an infant, eyes closed, left hand, almost as if in a pose, under her chin.
I first saw the video linked to an article at the Daily Mail. “The four-minute video captures the poignancy of ageing wonderfully as the artist affects minute changes which thoroughly alter the painting, although the features of the ‘subject’ remain the same throughout,” explained Anucyi Victor.
Subtlety is the hallmark of this tour de force. The slightest changes, accumulating over time…
At the time I first saw “Woman’s life,” I couldn’t help thinking of our grandson who was then not quite ten months old. The changes in him in just the previous month were astonishing. He was almost unrecognizable from the baby we toted around just three months prior.
Take five minutes and take in “Woman’s life.“