Conversations For Transformation: Essays Inspired By The Ideas Of Werner Erhard

Conversations For Transformation

Essays By Laurence Platt

Inspired By The Ideas Of Werner Erhard

And More

Creating For Creation's Sake

Sonoma, California, USA

May 22, 2015

This essay, Creating for Creation's Sake, is the fourteenth in a group of fifteen on Creating:

It is also the sequel to the eighth trilogy Visits With A Friend:

in that order.

It is also the fourth in an open group Visits With A Friend Sequels:

in that order.

I am indebted to Ron Mann who inspired this conversation.

It took me by surprise the first time (but only the first time) it happened, this shift from interacting with the world out there, to being the space, the context in which the world shows up.

<aside>

No, that's not a typo: on this occasion I do mean "out there" not "out-here" by what I'm implying.

"Out there" is where we typically locate the world. "Out-here" on the other hand, is a transformed place to stand.

<un-aside>

Now it's no longer surprising. Now it's just a question of the magnitude of what will happen ie of what will follow as a result of this shift. Every time I have the privilege of visiting with you, this fundamental shift re-occurs in my life. It's intangible at first. Yet more sooner than later I'll start to notice its influence. It'll start imperceptibly, yet its results are as profound in my life as a comet impacting a planet, shifting it off its current axis into a new rotation.

Of everything there is to be gotten by being around you, by being in conversation with you, by simply listening you, one particular result stands out for me over all others - of which there are legion. There are keys to being effective. There are ways of being with my past so that it stays in the past and doesn't leak ahead (if you will) and contaminate my future. There are exquisite insights into everything that makes men and women great - or, if you prefer given the state of parts of the world today, everything that makes it possible for men and women to be great. There are distinctions, rich worlds of distinctions, each with their own individual value, and all of which collectively highlight the power of distinction, the muscle we each have to reinvent what's possible (creation itself, it could be said, is a matter of distinction). There are conversations about integrity which leave me in integrity, not merely knowing about integrity. There are conversations about leadership which leave me being a leader as my natural Self-expression, not merely knowing about leadership. And although it's not the primary focus, being around you I get smarter about developing myself financially.

In any financial conversation with you, I've noticed your current focus on putting integrity into finance doesn't point directly to the book-keeping or even to particular investing strategies which will expand my bottom line. Yet when I deploy your purely positive approach to integrity in this context, it uncannily results in the expansion of my bottom line. My assumption here is that although it's mostly unrealized, mostly unspoken about (and sometimes even outright denied and lied about), being out of integrity with finance carries a severe yet hidden monetary cost. And what's most galling about it is what keeps the severe monetary cost of being out of integrity with finance hidden, is being out of integrity with finance.

But by far the most dramatic result I experience being around you, even without thinking about it, even without expecting it, even without anticipating it, also starts with the aforementioned contextual shift. And when it occurs, I'll notice I'm paying attention to an aspect of my life which, until then, wasn't getting a lot of scrutiny - and if it once did, it had slowly faded from my radar. It's accompanied by a calming of my thoughts - as if the voice in my head has taken a well deserved break. During this quieting I discover a deeper appreciation of art and of artists and of the entire process of creating. It's more than that actually. It's a deeper appreciation not merely of the availability of creativity like something I can draw on, but of the possibility, of the opportunity it is to be creative.

Being around you I gain an expanded appreciation of art, not merely of pieces of art, sculptures, paintings, designs (in all forms) etc and not merely of artists, Rodin, Rauschenberg, Da Vinci, Picasso, Yamada Mumon Roshi etc but rather of the possibility, the opportunity of my own life as an expression of art. In my own life as an expression of art, I'm the artist deploying the medium of Life itself on which to create something. It's that kind of appreciation of being this kind of artist creating this kind of art, which I get being around you. It's the act of living life as a creation simply because it's possible to live life as an act of creation. There's no other reason. There's no other in order to. There's no other because. This is taking on the (free) license and the (priceless) opportunity to be creative simply for the sake of being creative. This is creating for creation's sake - simply because it's possible to live this way. No other justification is required.

I notice there's a parallel here with the conversation with you about the impact of putting integrity into finance, an act which also works for the financial bottom line - even if it's not aimed directly at it. The parallel is with putting creativity into life, which also works ie which especially works for the practical, day to day bottom line elements of living - even if it's not aimed directly at them. It's the parallel between managing finances as an act of integrity, and managing living life as an act of creation. And it always shows up around you, this possibility of weaving my life and Life itself as a living tapestry. The only question to ask about it is: what will my tapestry depict?

Cost of an air ticket and expenses to visit with you? A few thousand dollars maybe. Value of re-establishing my hands and feet on the levers and pedals of the loom weaving a life and Life itself as a living tapestry, the opportunity of creating for creation's sake as a possibility for everyone who's within earshot of this conversation?

Priceless.

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