stained glass eyes

As I walked through a darkened room yesterday my eye was drawn to what I thought to be a television flat screen above a large oak dining room table. I was amused when I realized that what I was really looking at was a small stained glass window that was illuminated from behind by an electric light. I found it infinitely more soothing and pleasing than a television and I began to think about stained glass and its use in churches and in windows in general. It occurred to the brain of gardega that stained glass was (in a sense) the forerunner of television!! As a child I was obsessed with magnifying glasses and found many uses for my lenses other than killing ants. I would wait until my parents were gone and sneak up to the TV and stare for hours at the matrix of tiny colors. If you look at a TV screen with a magnifying glass you will see it is broken down into small "bits" of color that is very much a micro- stained glass window. In the middle ages there was very little visual stimulation save for candle light and the occasional manuscript and only the rich had paintings...Imagine the impact the windows had on the eyes of a young artist who eyes were not swollen shut with you tube videos and foot powder commercials! Stained glass was used to convey messages just as mass-media would be five hundred years later ---It was hi def . I do not think it is an accident that life/ reality follows such paths as she does and it does surprise me that more people do not ponder such things....