With the vast volume of creative expressions by innovators, scientists, thinkers, writers and artists of any kind in our climate of over-saturated productions – some unique works will flicker shortly and then sink to seeming oblivion, temporarily invisible on the crossroads. Does it matter?
My Sufi friend, Fazal Inayat-Khan, once said, ‘If Einstein had never published his theories, his ideas would still have irrevocably changed the world of science.’
What makes products succeed in the public domain? Is it genius, fame, skill, merit, sponsorship, contacts, money, timing, luck, or the phenomenon of strong desire and expectation? Over years of psychotherapy practice I’ve met people, who, let’s say, were the apple of the eye of a parent, a friend, a teacher, a mentor, or maybe an angel of synchronicity that inspired confidence towards success. While some people may be born with faith in their desire, others, whose confidence was knocked, need a nudge. Expectation feeds success. Expectation is uncanny; it’s like carrying a magnet.
Still, even meteoric success can be short lived. Weighed down with superlative praise, a work can sizzle out and draw ridicule. When a lauded product doesn’t impress me, I ask myself – is this because of my acquired taste, my hugging of precious time, my complex mind, my standards, my arrogance, or my jealousy? A half-truth sneaks through all these questions, embarrassing. Shouldn’t creative people support each other?
Yes and no. Triggers that stimulate us vary. I must catch the tune of an authentic wave that keeps me in the zone. My interest wakes when an unnameable quality shines through a work of art. I call it an internalised idea transformed in the heart. This kind of deep assimilation is often transmitted by poets, like Rilke, Rumi, Neruda, Warsan Shire, to randomly pick only a few artists who reveal multiple layers of meaning.
Equally, the simple words of some prayers and mantras transmit the power of their initially intended blessing. Then again, if a quality is not already dormant in me, I may sense the love tincture, but the symbolic aspect drowns in crackling noises when I can’t fine-tune the relevant radio wave. This is why, when we return at different times during our lives to creative works that intrigued us, we may find the essence of a message and grok how it relates to us with sudden intuitive comprehension.
‘Grok’ is a word coined by Robert A Heinlein in his 1961 novel ‘Stranger in a Strange Land.’ A Martian term for intuitive understanding, though it means much more. The Wikipedia entry for Grog is totally worth reading.
just a stone
Cloned, copied and reassembled work, in short, quirky experimental materials, often has deeply assimilated qualities, if one can detect the code. In today’s flood-lit cyberspace there is stuff that blinks and chimes, stuff that rings pretentious, and stuff the heart can’t decode, yet.
As for writers who tilled a patch of their inner territory and planted seeds that thrive, it can be a lone satisfaction when no promoter propels readers to seek out the garden so lovely and inspiring to spend time in.
When a few connoisseurs find and grok the hidden place, the pleasure is shared. And that’s not even addressing the mysterious process of any creative work, the reward of which lives on in other time-zones.
To bring back the question – does it matter if creative works don’t appear in the light, are invisible on the public crossroads? The publishing world, for example, geared to profit, accumulates mountains of slush piles, like compost heaps. When you think of it – all manifestations are constantly recycled, small bits, big bits. And yet, I sincerely believe that anything processed and transmitted through the heart’s intelligence leaves a coherent mark and demands eternal resurrection. In other words, the essence of these works will shine on.
This post may be a tad confusing, not telling you anything you don’t already know. But having been immersed in editing ‘Shapers’ and composing a short story for a local competition, and, sigh, fretting over practical issues, like a defunct heating system I have nil resources to fix, nor the nerve to tap into the bureaucratic nightmare of government grants, I wanted to pause and say hello to all creative warriors out there.
In this warm and wet autumn
fresh grass grows, as soft as silk …
Talking of growth and beautiful spaces, visit this plot of a friend with a brilliant mind, who inspires by planting riches in a real earth plot in the middle of a roundabout.
Course of Mirrors 
another fascinating look at your thinking. I love the idea that all the sleeping words in the slush pile are already seeping out.
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Yes, as condensed nutrition 🙂
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If we believe ( and I do, not as a matter of faith, but of experience) that the creation is Jean’s great ‘thought’ and if Erwin Laszlo’s Akashic Field is a description of that great tangled interconnected thought, then it must follow that all creative inter-weavings, poetry, characters, fantastic new worlds, must be retained within it, in creative potentia to actualise, but in some pure form before that happens.
It is a consolation in the absence of worldly recognition! The latter would be nice though!
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I’ve no doubt whatsoever that your immensely coherent work will in time be welcomed in a deserving context. I never doubted a field of mind where everything is recorded. I was born with that ancient knowledge into this rational age. Frustrating. And, oh yes, worldly recognition would be nice 🙂
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Your confidence in that A both assists its likelihood and comforts! I decided it was time I stopped feeling sorry for myself and just got back to work regardless.I was so oppressed by time running out I could never decide how to spend it. So I was wasting it while trying to decide..Hopeless!
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I so agree. Enjoy what is revealed to you, regardless of all the frantic attempts aiming to proof information is stored in the brain. It’s all we can do. There’s solace and freedom in befriending the imagination.
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‘I must catch the tune of an authentic wave that keeps me in the zone’… It rings true for me; and perhaps answers the question raised at my recent reading about how much to stick to the story vs making it poetic in sound and flow. Does it actually MATTER if the listener/reader ‘gets’ what you intended – what YOUR story was – if in fact it resonates with them? i.e. catches the tune of an authentic wave that keeps them in the zone??? Thank you for this!!!
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Thanks, Sarah, for feeding this back to me. There’ll always be readers who can tune imaginatively into the experience of our world, our zone is embraced into their zone and adjusted to their very own understanding. It’s a wonderful feeling to have sympathetic companions on the way.
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Hello Ashen.
Very thought provoking piece.
Throughout my working career, it has become increasingly obvious to me of the need to be ” in the right place at the right time”.
Having sourced beautiful items from various countries only to find the resale of them impossible for a particular clientele, can be a bitter pill to swallow.
On other occasions, the most common of items could sell like hot cakes.
This has been true of some paintings I have presented also.
The mantra of Pablo Picasso was to continue your work in a state of readiness. This has been very helpful to me as a creative person and being in a ” State if readiness” establishes sound reasoning behind system and direction.
Always nice to read your work Ashen. B
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… The mantra of Pablo Picasso was to continue your work in a state of readiness …
I tend to sabotage this state of readiness by hanging stubbornly suspended between the pressure I put myself under over things I ought to to, and then doing nothing because doing seems pointless, or beyond my resources. Thanks, Bill. You remind me to stay alert. So easy to miss the wave when it comes, though I do recall the experience of exhilaration when it happens 🙂
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I love your post as it does make me think. At first my interpretation is that artists need to work together to support one another despite our differences, like in the political world. However, I also understand needing to be surrounded by like-minded artists to help inspire one. I’m in a writers’ group where nearly everyone writes a different genre. I love the people, but I don’t find it helpful for me.
My post was more based on the idea that people of all differences should learn to get along. We don’t have to all be the same… but sometimes it helps depending on what we are doing in life. Thanks for the great ideas.
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Writing happens in solitude, which is very different from working with groups, as I did most of my life.
I miss the uplifting energy that comes together when a group unites around an idea, or a project.
In some way writing is about bringing all relationship dynamics together in oneself, challenging, rewarding, and in need of genuine feedback from readers who can grok (intuit) what is being transmitted. Genuine feedback, beyond writing technique, is rare to come by among writers of different genres.
A nourishing writing tribe can help, Gwynn, or a like minded beta reader.
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I grok your painting of ‘just a stone’ Ashen as I do your piece here. Many thoughts about writing and being re-cognised by those who read what we write. A bit of luck, a bit of synchronicity, skill, fame, sponsor and so on all help I suppose. Re: expectations – not a word I like all that much because of my assertion of no attachment to outcome once the work has been done. But speaking to the universe as you do sends out vibrations that will be caught at some time – of this I am (relatively) sure … have a lovely weekend 🙂
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Thank you Susan. The stone was a special find while walking at Wittering beach with a friend. The top image is also mine, older, which lost its caption while posting.
What you say about expectations made me think of my own ‘not attaching to the outcome’ stance. In my case it’s to soften disappointment.
But for some people worldly success works from a deep unconscious default position, not willed at all. Maybe brought along at birth, or installed very early on. Then again, the magic is often accompanied by emotional suffering.
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