Cubs

Meandering through the sculpture galleries of the Cleveland Museum of Art, I gave an appreciative nod to several pieces and moved on. Then I stood before a work I’d not before noticed: Saint Jerome and the Lion.* The saint is seated. A cub lion with a curly mane leans against Jerome as the saint removes a thorn from its paw. The cub looks away as any child would. I spent a little time with Jerome and the lion cub and then it came to me: If indeed we are for peace, much good will come of tending to the cubs.

*by Tilman Riemenschneider, St. Jerome and the Lion, from the former Church of St. Peter in Erfurt, Germany, c. 1495