Life in a painting

Some of Chagall’s paintings contain

the whole story, parts of it, or at least

the beginning and end:

the burning bush, drowning enemies,

the journey and the promised land;

the flood and the rainbow;

the harp, the crown, and the temptation on the roof; wrestling with the angel and the blessing; father’s joy, pride, anger and disappointment; the Ten Commandments and the suffering nation; the glory of creation, the exile, and the turning sun of human history. But this is not

how life is, or is it?