The Lions Club Of Land O’ Lakes Roar

I remember standing facing the Vincent Van Gogh’s Starry Night at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York back in 1996 and feeling tears running down my face. It was an emotional moment to see a painting that I was introduced to and asked to replicate as a first-year student of Interior Design in 1992. I thought I had done a good job in the reproduction, until I saw the original at MoMA. The thousands of tiny intricate brush strokes that make up that piece of art, are, in the least, immaculate, refined, glorious.

A couple of weeks ago, I watched Starry Night come to motion in the Free Dance section of Milano-Cortinas’s Olympics, winning Bronze for Canada. Gilles and Poirier re-imagined the night that Van Gogh drew from his little room in the asylum in France in 1889. I am not familiar with terms used in figure skating, and much less familiar in grading systems, but what I am familiar with, what we are all familiar with, is how art move us. And that performance was a piece of art.

Van Gogh thought his Starry Night was a failed artwork, a painting not worth mentioning. Yet, more than a hundred years later, two skaters proudly wore that painting and floated across the ice rink in circles much like the brush strokes on the wall at MoMA.

It makes me wonder if Melvin Jones, the Lions Founding Father, ever imagined that his idea, would survive and become a beacon of service for many generations. Did he ever think that Lions’ Symbols would be worn with pride? That monuments would be erected in every little town in over two hundred and twenty geographic regions around the world. That millions wearing a vest would attend conventions where they share stories and ideas that support their communities. I would say probably not; but without his idea, clubs around the world carrying, “We Serve” in their hearts would not have happened, and one of those, so close to our hearts, is the Lions Club of Land O’ Lakes in the little town of Northbrook, North of 7.

Till we meet again in a Roar, look up at the stars, trace the circles in your mind and maybe build your own Starry Night image, and meet us on the 28th of March for an evening of laughter with Comedian Timmy Boyle.