Writing Decorates Knowlege
Reflection: #27
An interesting and inspiring thought occurred to me today, and it was this:
Art is how humans send inspiration and energy to one another across space and time.
Of course, I'm including all forms of art in this thought, including, and perhaps, especially writing.
“Art is how we decorate space, music is how we decorate time,” said Jean-Michel Basquiat.
And I once added, "Dance is how we decorate motion." Later still, it dawned on me that Creation has gifted humans with three fundamental gifts: Space, Time and Motion. And we decorate those three fundamental gifts with the three respective gifts of our own: Art, Music and Dance.
But why do we decorate space, time, and motion, beyond the insatiable need to Create, the hunger to create and give back to creation? And that's where today’s epiphany comes in - we send inspiration and energy with our art, to other humans, and it completes the loop, while simultaneously starting another one, a virtuous upward spiral across the history of humanity. These three art forms allow us to send this inspired energy to one another across space and time. Haven't you ever been moved to tears, or inspired or excited by a piece of music? How can you not feel it in your very soul when an orchestra plays Mozart's music? He, from his short time on this earth hundreds of years ago sent you this energy. And his gift, which often results, in turn, in us being inspired to create yet art of our own.
But, these three art forms, art, music and dance are different than writing. In one way, they are more pure, because, one of the things we, as humans do, and it’s a thing that prevents us from truly noticing the awesomeness of reality around us, is that we reduce the things we see into abstract concepts and words. The very language which sets us apart from animals, can also hinder us when doing the very thing we are put here to do. Example: when I see a leaf floating on the wind, glinting in the sunlight and yet simply file it under "leaf" and move on, then I've missed a valuable opportunity. Yet we all have a tendency to do this because we often think in words, symbols and labels. They save us time. The are efficient. They make us productive. But being efficient and productive, for the artist, is counterproductive. The artist must not think of “saving time” but must think of saving the beautiful inspiration for posterity.
So, writing, unlike the other forms of art, relies on the very words which can pose a barrier. However, the writer, like all other artists must be open to these moments of beauty. WE, the writers, must notice, and then we must find that inspirational energy, and then we must beam it across space and time to others. And so, while we work in the medium of words, brushing and dabbing them on the page, we must sometimes, attempt not to think in words, we must transcend words when noticing reality.
And yet, somehow, we must then use the very words that separate us from reality to share a beautiful glimpse of it anyway. And amazingly, the best writing manages to do this. The skillful raconteur, through eloquent use of language, and knowing precisely what to say, and how to say it, all while also knowing what to leave to the reader’s imagination, is able to perform his alchemy, which takes a small container of words and re-expands them into an inspirational mimicking of majestic reality (a reality which can be a real or imagined reality, for there is very little difference). And when done properly, such writing somehow, magically is transformed into art. And writing that has become art is a form of poetry, whether poem or prose.
As an art form, writing alone requires human language, a form of knowledge, to create and to receive, which in a strange way is a more difficult alchemy than the other three art forms above, for writing alone must depend upon knowledge being learned by both parties, while at the same time transcending itself to join its three brethren in decorating the universe.
And so, as I correct my oversight and add writing to the pantheon of noble art forms, I've realized this: Writing decorates Knowledge.
