Genius or monster?  This is the question that many people asked upon reading Francoise Gilot's My Life with Picasso.  A woman with whom Picasso lived ten years and with whom he had two children (both of whom are still alive), Gilot writes vividly and insightfully about Picasso's extraordinary artistic genius.  She presents remarkable pictures of his creative processes.

    At the same time, Gilot writes, with equal insight and candor, of Picasso's arrogance and abusive ways.  It's not always a pretty picture.  Such a dichotomy causes us to wonder, again, at the notion of genius in the human being.  Why, we ask, must such amazing ability be paired with such jarring personal disorder?

    Ah, the mystery of humanness.  Profound brokenness, overwhelming wonder.

    How does one fathom the ways of God?