*To sit on one’s throne can mean ‘to be in a position of power or to defecate.’

*The Call of Duty: tiny original paintings by Cristina Guggeri

*The throner on the top left is Putin. The throner on the top right is Trump. The throner in the middle is late Albert Einstein. The throner on the bottom left is late Pablo Escobar – Medallin drug cartel boss. The throner on the bottom right is Benjamin Netanyahu – the prime minister of Israel.

These tiny paintings were hanging in the bathroom of the house my sister-in-law rented for our family gathering a few year ago. The house was in the Berkshires (western Massachusetts) on a lake in the woods in the middle of nowhere. I remember having a friendly argument with my sister-in-law about whether or not there was a meaning behind these people sitting on their thrones. I know she studied art history and said no; but I said yes.

As for Putin and Trump, it’s obvious why they are there. Some people like those guys, but most dislike them. Those guys think they are kings and can pretty much do what they want. But they’ve got to come down from their high-and-mighty thrones and “go” sometime and sit on the other kind of throne – like everyone else.  

Also, the owners had a book in the house in Hebrew. So, I knew that they were Jewish. As such, they were connected to Israel in one way or another. So, Benjamin Netanyahu’s picture did not end up there by pure chance. It was there because they either supported him or were against him. They didn’t send away for his picture just because he looked cool - not that he does.  Given that nearly all Jewish people I know in Massachusetts tend to be on the left and Netanyahu is on the right, they probably did not support Netanyahu. Yes, show him sitting on the other kind of throne!

As for Einstein, I suspect that the owner is familiar with physics. I also suspect that he is sympathetic to the Copenhagen School – the quantum mechanics people (N. Bohr and W. Heisenberg) who actually won the debate with Einstein (at the Solvay Conference in 1911), regarding the ultimate nature (of physic’s account) of reality. Despite that, Einstein became the king of physics and him and his followers got most of the cushy research positions and funding. So, despite being the king and all, show that he still goes!

As for mi amigo Pablo, as with most people when we were young, they may have done “coke” that was mostly likely brought into the (United) Sates by Pablo and his guys. Pablo had a very powerful army of his own and thought he was untouchable. Was he? Not only was he touchable, but he had to “go.”