What is “the onion.”

In the coming days and months you will see me blog quite a bit about peeling the layers of “the onion.” The Onion is a term that my artist friend Rhoda and I use to describe the scar tissue that builds up around the soul due to things like unfavorable reactions to a very well written speech, teachers telling you that drawing and art are a waste of time and other such soul killing incidents. Those of you who know me well know that I LOVE Pink Floyd. The entire album “The Wall” is dedicated to this idea of the onion. At the end of The Wall the second last song is The Trial, where His Honor The Worm orders Pink to tear down his wall and expose his real self to his friends and the world. The resulting song is a simple, child like song.

Most of us do not know that we even have an onion of scar tissue around our souls. Even when we become aware of its presence it might take us years to do anything about it. In 2001 I ran into an old pre-school teacher by accident one day in a library. She remembered me as a young boy and was thrilled to see me. She told me that I was such a delight to be around and so creative. At this point in my life I was 27, very much jaded and angry with life. I did not at all remember the little boy who she was referring to. Other than painting Byzantine Icons, I was doing no other art. In fact, I was quite blocked creatively. It was not until about 7 years later that I began to wonder about the young boy that I once was who loved to build with Legos and draw all of the time.

The very hard work of unravelling the onion began about 3 years before my ex-wife left me. Like an onion, the layers of scar tissue that block our creativity come off pieces at a time. Sometimes they come off quickly,other times not so quickly. Rarely does the entire wall just implode as it does on the amazing album by Pink Floyd. There will be many posts about the unraveling and peeling of the onion, but now you will have a good idea of what I am talking about in my blogging.