My favorite painting

One of my favorite paintings is “The Fall of Icarus” by Pieter Breugel, a Dutch painter from the 16th century. In the painting, the pastel blue green sky and sea center on a bright yellow sun reflecting off of the sea in the center of the painting. Closer to the viewer, a man plows his field following his horse and wooden plow with his head down concentrating on his task. Below him on the hillside, a shepherd looks up into the sky while his sheep graze on the brown plateau. Perhaps he heard a cry and looks skywards to locate the origin of the cry. We can also see a ship with the sails full of wind passing them. In the lower right corner, two legs in a pose suggesting struggle and desperation belong to the Icarus of the title. According to Greek mythology, Icarus made wings of wax that enabled him to fly, but he grew proud and flew too close to the sun causing his wings to melt and him to fall from the sky. For me, this picture suggests how as we go about our daily lives filled with the importance of our worlds, we often don’t see the daily struggles of those around us. As a teacher, I know my students only through a few hours of contact a week, and sometimes I fear that I am the shepherd who looks into the sky for a cry that he heard and misses the important action, or I am like the farmer as I am so involved in teaching grammar that I can’t see the real struggles of my students.