We have been trained by our educational institutions to search for some sort of deeper meaning beneath the outer layer of art. When we read, we think of themes; when we watch films, we think of themes; when we view paintings, we think of themes. And then when we try to create art, we nearly drown when we think, "But what am I really trying to say?"
Leave that question behind; banish it to the borderlands where it belongs.
Solomon said it best a long, long time ago: "There is nothing new under the sun." Nothing you produce will say something entirely original. But the way you say it: That can be new, exciting, refreshing.
I've tried to live my life with this in mind. I am nothing new, nor is my life. I am so small; my time is so short in the grand scale of geologic time. Yet I know that if I can make my life an art and bring a freshness to the things I do day to day, like driving or walking down the hallway, then I can create meaning in the very act of living. The living is the meaning, after all. There are no themes lurking beneath the surface of life. I will be judged on what I do, but I will also be judged on how.
That's style: the how of life.
This is uncannily applicable to my life at the moment.
ReplyDeleteLately, I've realized that I've become more frustrated with myself and my life this year because I've been constantly digging for deeper meanings and originality in everything. I'd get so disappointed when I didn't see what I wanted to see.
But yesterday, I told myself: screw it. Take life as it is, and that should be enough.