Simply sublime

Our Belgian hosts, the Central Economic Council and the National Labour Council, generously invited all of the ESC Presidents and Secretaries-General to an evening meal. Before that, though, they laid on a guided tour to the Magritte Museum. This was a rare treat. Please don’t tell anybody, but by chance I found myself alone in a room with Magritte’s Empire of Light. For some five minutes I gazed without interruption or noise at one of my all-time favourite paintings. The more I gazed at it, the more fascinated I became. Why does this particular image exert such influence on us (well, on me, at least)? Those privileged minutes were an oasis of calm in a hectic week of much activity and many emotions.