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This week, a reader wrote:
“I know that John appears to be a big time loser in the movie…”
That would be John Max, the subject of last week’s post. Max was a successful photographer whose loss of confidence was documented in a rare film.
“…but perhaps after his disintegration there was some sort of renewal in his life.”
Death-and-resurrection—this writer knows what turns me on.
The documentary portrayed Max as the uncompromising artist. His belief system refused to die. It was killing him. Max’s intransigence demonstrated a sad truth about the human condition—that for some of us…
it’s easier to die than change.
John Max conveniently proved my “theory of tragedy”. But the commenter, a former photography student of Max, suggests there’s more to the story…
“I can’t help thinking that in his soul there was something that surpassed our understanding… perhaps, in fact, he was a Holy Fool.”
A HOLY FOOL
Heathen that I am, I cannot speak with authority about these radical Christians called Holy Fools. So, I’ll let the letter writer, a prairie poet and filmmaker named Harvey Spak, enlighten us:
“In the Eastern Christian Tradition, such people are valued, viewed as saints, fools for Christ, imitating his failure.”
So, the Holy Fool feigns madness. No way that John Max was faking his fear and confusion. Perhaps it’s enough that the Fool—consciously or not—brings our attention to failure.
Says Spak:
“De
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