Letters from Quotidia Fractal 3

Welcome to Letters from Quotidia Fractal 3. I used to moan periodically about writer’s block and personified this affliction as a hulking, sadistic wrestler only too ready to crush me anytime I dared to enter the ring of composition. Then, in September 2025, I attended an exhibition in Canberra. The National Gallery of Australia hosted a stellar exhibition of artists such as Cezanne, Picasso, Matisse, Braque and Klee. It was transformative. God knows, there are far too few such moments in any life where the word epiphany can be use with any accuracy but there it was!

Among the paintings that snagged my attention was one entitled Ein Kinderspiel (Child’s Play). Painted by Paul Klee in 1939, it depicts a girl floating above a farmyard; like something a child would paint in bold, disconnected strokes, using black, red, yellow, and green as the predominant colours. Roland Marz, a contributor to the exhibition catalogue writes, Conscious of the transience of all things, the older Klee once again became a child…in his art of the most elementary simplicity. This picture was produced in the final, full year of the artist’s creative life. Although he was dying of the progressive disease, scleroderma- the symptoms of which would be agony for any painter- hardening of the skin on the face and fingers, joint pain and reduced blood flow to the extremities, Paul Klee produced 1253 sketches and paintings in the calendar year 1939.

A staggering output. Averaging twenty-four compositions every week, this puts into stark perspective my feeble cavil about having to create a couple of songs each week to accompany the podcasts I am rolling out. A skilled artist can product a sketch in minutes, and, over the course of a day, even hindered by scleroderma, Klee may have produced ten or more sketches- but this is churlish! A masterful work such as Ein Kinderspiel would have taken much longer than any mere sketch. And this journeyman songwriter can only dream of creating a song of equal stature to Klee’s Child’s Play.

But dream I did, and just 10 weeks ago in Hologram 5, I wrote a song inspired by Klee’s painting, which, if you are a regular listener to these podcasts, you might remember. And so, I find that writer’s block is no longer an issue in my practice. There is so much inspiration from life that, who knows, I may have enough material to be able to select from a number of candidates for inclusion in my weekly podcast! But enough dreaming, eh. As  Lao Tzu, who may or may not have existed and who may or may not be the author of the Tao Te Ching; this elusive sage may or may not have said, New beginnings are often disguised as painful endings. Here is Painful Endings, New Beginnings which focuses on the plight of the artist creating in the grip of illness, rather than the artwork itself. [insert song] 

After the First Punic War (241 BC), Rome imposed penalties on Carthage, making this one of the earliest examples of war reparations. The Treaty of Versailles crippled a defeated Germany with such onerous reparations that the seeds of the rise of Hitler and World War Two were sown. Here’s a definition of reparation by the American Dictionary- repayment for harm or damage. A clear and simple explanation.

In the Catholic Church the concept of reparation is of high importance. As flawed creatures we have, of course, subjected God to insult and injury throughout history. In Old Testament times He sometimes lashed out with flood or fire as Noah or survivors of Sodom and Gomorrah may attest. While the Almighty could have chosen to condone our transgressions gratuitously, He determined that, notwithstanding the sacrifice made on the cross at Calvary by Christ which atoned for all of  humanity’s sin and disobedience, we should be required to face up to our transgressions and make good on any injury we have done to others.

Which is OK- if it is possible. Hey, I stole 100 bucks from you a while back- here’s your $100 which I return with interest- sorry about that! But not all injuries are able to be healed. I think of instances of unkindness visited on others that are now long past and beyond redress. An acid tongue and skewering pen I once thought highly desirable. Gradually, I came to realise that Wordsworth’s little, nameless, unremembered, acts / Of kindness and of love are worth more than all the vitriol in existence.

Sometimes a flip remark or what you thought was a bit of witty repartee can hurt more than you intended. Now for the blast from the past which is a feature of the Fractals. Thirty years ago, I wrote a song called Diving For Pennies. At the time we were playing in clubs in Sydney’s west and the drudgery of lugging equipment in and out of venues, setting up and trying to keep cheerful for the punters after a hard week’s work could be a trial. Listen to the song now and spot the unkindness. [insert song]  

The injuries inflicted on the unfortunate of society by the economic system that is late capitalism is another dimension which is worth mentioning. The present poet laureate of Britain, Simon Armitage has a short poem that illustrates this reality. It’s called Give, Of all the public places, dear/ to make a scene, I’ve chosen here// Of all the doorways in the world/ to choose to sleep, I’ve chosen yours./ I’m on the street under the stars// For coppers I can dance or sing./ For silver- swallow swords, eat fire./For gold- escape from locks and chains.// It’s not as if I’m holding out/ for frankincense or myrrh, just change./ You give me tea. That’s big of you. I’m on my knees. I beg of you.//

The synoptic Gospels all narrate the account of the rich young man and Jesus. Whenever I hear this story, I identify with the bloke who can’t give up all his possessions in order to follow Him. This is the setting in which Jesus says that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than a rich man to enter heaven. Really? If entry to Paradise is just a function of not being rich, then I’m a shoo-in- but there’s probably a bit more to it than this. I wrote a song about the rich young man’s predicament which I call Give Up- Listen, and see what you think? [insert song] Thus endeth the third fractal. And while a land of skipping optimism was hinted at in the last post, I assure you that I am constantly on the lookout for subjects and themes uplifting to put to you!

Credits: All written text, song lyrics and music (including background music) written and composed by Quentin Bega unless otherwise specified in the credits section after individual posts. Illustrative excerpts from other texts identified clearly within each podcast. I donate to and use Wikipedia frequently as one of the saner sources of information on the web.

Technical Stuff: Microphone-songs Shure SM58; (for the podcast spoken content) Audio Technica AT 2020 front-facing with pop filter); Apogee 76K also used for songs and spoken text. For recording and mixing down: 64-bit N-Track Studio 10 Extended used; Rubix 22 also used for mixing of microphone(s) and instruments. I use the Band in a Box/RealBand 2023 combo for music composition.