The Zen of Painting

The Joy of Painting is one of my favourite television shows; I look forward to it every Saturday, and get physically upset if it's pre-empted by a PBS fund drive or something. I like it for two reasons: seeing a white canvas turned into something (usually) beautiful in less than thirty minutes, and the hypnotically soothing Bob Ross. Something about the combination of his excitement for painting, his esoteric hippy philosophy, and his calming voice just puts me into a very happy and relaxed place. And every once in a while, he says something amazing, like he did today (paraphrased because I was too hypnotized to get off the couch):

Bob: That's one of the nice things about painting landscapes. If you paint a portrait and you get someone's eye out of place, it's going to be wrong. But if you get a crooked line or a strange colour when you paint a tree, someone will come up to you and say, "I know that tree. We went to different schools together."

It's not crazy talk, it's zen. Don't think about it. Just accept it for its strange wisdom, and move along.