“Pizzaonia Emerging #5” - Courtesy of the Pizzaonian Art Institute, Abe Straction, curator
There comes a time when you have to write for yourself and no one else. Trying to please the public or find your audience is like expecting an elephant with big ears to be able to fly – foolish expectations that never happen.
Pursuing one's art is the goal of every living soul. By art, we mean the right to be authentic. For most people, their lives are their art. They do not necessarily have to produce any artifacts to be considered an artist.
The only chance any of us has for an authentic life is to have the courage to be who you are and no one else. Just imagine if that could happen. I am sure some will consider this trite, especially those who believe they are living an authentic life. Forgive me but this also assumes you have a clue as to who you are supposed to be.
If you think you are following Nirvana – rethink - don’t be so complacent and self-centered. No one is better at fooling us than how we deceive ourselves. How many bitter roads have been traveled because of the false belief that we were being true to ourselves?
Unfortunately, many do not discover this until the road is well-traveled, and many years have gone by. This happens frequently in a culture that keeps you so busy chasing rainbows, there is no time for introspection.
This can be very insidious. Most of us are very reluctant to see those we love as obstacles barring us from our goals. Guilt becomes a major issue we need to overcome.
However, before we deal with this, I must take a minute and remind all of us that these are problems of people with full stomachs. If you have to dig for roots to survive you have little time for such thoughts. Physical survival is your only concern as it should be.
However, once your day to day physical survival is no longer an issue a different type of survival moves to center stage. Emotional survival is necessary if you are going to develop fully your talents. However, before we move on let’s first take some credit for being in this position. Most people around the world never reach this point.
What is emotional survival? I think we can reduce it simply to knowing your life is moving in the right direction. When this is happening, we begin to take the necessary steps to keep this movement alive and well.
This gets us back to the issue of our relationships. Our immediate environment must allow our true personalities to exist. It is the most important single factor in your life. When this is right, virtually everything else can be worked out successfully.
There does exist that occasional person whose pursuit of their personal goals is so dominant they are unaware of the negative effects they create within their personal environment. Conversely, because they are the way they are, they also create a very negative environment for those around them.
This leads to continuing conflict with all parties and eventually will destroy the relationship. The more submissive personalities will allow this situation to exist regardless of how unhappy they are, but only for so long. They usually end the conflict by creating a situation that cannot be ignored. This can take many forms, but they are always destructive.
Two things have to happen before any of these issues can be resolved. First and most important you have to know what you want. It is always presumed that this will be about following a single purpose or vocation. For most this is true. But, please, let us never forget that it is some people’s authentic vocation to have many vocations.
Unfortunately, people who seek multiple vocations are often considered dilettantes. Not only are those who believe this wrong in their assumptions, they are myopic to the human condition.
We will continue this on Tuesday.
Brother Franco
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