"The monotony and solitude of a
quiet
life stimulates the
creativemind."
... Professor Albert Einstein
"It doesn't always have to be like this ... all we need to do is make
sure we keep talking."
... Stephen Hawking
It is said that Life presents us with a blank (for the most part)
canvas on which we can
create
(just about) anything of our own choosing. I've qualified that
assertion twice: once with "for the most part", and again
with "just about". That's not to say there are things we
can'tcreate
- our
creativity
(indeed,
creativity
itself) knows no bounds. Rather what it addresses is the likelihood
that some of the things we couldcreate,
simply wouldn't
work
as well as others -
creating
anything, for example, in violation of the law of the land
or in violation of
integrity
being two obvious cases in point.
Most often when we work with canvas, the way we
create
something on it, is by
painting.
And most often when we apply
paint
to canvas, we do so with a brush. But that's not the only way to
create
something on canvas. There are
works of art
of which I'm particularly fond, which were
created
by the
artistpouringpaint
onto the canvas rather than applying it with a brush in the more
traditional way. And then there are other more avant gardeworks of artcreated
by the
artist
throwing ie flingingpaint
at the canvas, the results of which can be both dramatic and intense.
Developing the analogy of Life as a blank canvas further, what media
are available to us with which we can
paint
anything (ie anything that
works)
on Life? Consider this: rather than oil, pastel, or
watercolorpaint,
it's our
words
which we apply to Life's canvas. Sometimes we brush our
words
on. Sometimes we pour them on. Sometimes we fling them at Life. And the
canvas which results ie the
work of art
which results, is a product both of our
words,
and of whatever method we deploy when we
create
whatever we
create
with our
words
- that is to say whether we brush our
words
on Life, whether we pour them on, or whether we fling them on.
Here's the essential difference between an
artist
applying paint to canvas to
create
a
work of art,
and you and I applying
words
to Life to
create
whatever it is we
create:
an
artist
is aware it's her
paints
applied to the canvas which result in her
work of art
looking the way it looks, whereas you and I are (for the most part)
un‑aware it's the
words
we apply to the canvas of Life which result in our lives looking the
way they look ... and ... which have the power to
transform
its quality. Indeed, they're the only things which ever have.
I like the Einstein quote which starts this essay: "The monotony and
solitude of a
quiet
life stimulates the
creativemind.".
Einstein is far from
ordinary.
Yet I selected it because it's the most
brilliant,
terse rendition I could find of how we
ordinarily
regard the
source
of
creativity
- and for a
brilliant
and terse idea, who better than Einstein?
Ordinarily
we regard the
mind
as the
source
of
creativity,
and our
words
as the conveyer (if you will) of whatever results from its
creativity.
I can only speculate what might have transpired had Einstein, like
Richard Feynman
(another Nobel Prize-winning physicist) after him, fortuitously
inquired into the
source
of
creativity
in a
conversation
with
Werner Erhard.
Would he have considered a one hundred and eighty degree reversal of
his position? Would he have considered his
words
to be the
source
of
creativity
rather than the
mind,
and the
mind
to be the conveyer of whatever results from their
creativity
rather than his
words?
Arguably it's a moot point anyway, given it was whatever Einstein
ultimately
spoke
which altered the possibility of life on
our planet
for everyone - which begs a very real question: if Einstein had
notspoken,
would his ideas have had as much of an impact? If
Stephen Hawking
had not
spoken,
would his ideas have had as much of an impact? Before Einstein there
was only a blank canvas onto which he brushed, poured, and flung the
words
which eventually comprised his theory of relativity
(now universally accepted as de rigueur). Before
Stephen Hawking
there was only a blank canvas, onto which he brushes, pours, and flings
the
words
which will eventually comprise his theory of everything
(still a
work in progress).
Whether this is "the truth" or not (and
God!
I hope you're not assuming I'm proposing this like it is
"the truth" - saying this like it's "the truth" will completely
ruin it for you ...), it's worth considering that
all of Life is a blank canvas onto which we're empowered
to brush, pour, and fling our
words.
It's these
linguistic
acts
which will eventually result in our lives looking the way they look,
for worse or for better, and which by the same token have the power to
transform
them.