By Laurence G. Boldt. 1995.
Well over fifty percent of all employed Americans are dissatisfied in their work [10]. Most, however, never allow their dissatisfaction to reach the point where action becomes a necessity. They never know the kind of necessity that would compel them to thoroughly examine themselves and their environments until they perceive a truer vision of their life’s work.
[10] Diane Sukiennik, Lisa Raufman, and William Bendat, The Career Fitness Program: Exercising Your Career Options (Scottsdale, AZ: Gorsuch Scarisbrick, Publishers, 1986), 13.
Leonardo Da Vinci kept extensive notebooks. Hundreds of detailed drawings of everything from the flight of cannonballs to the structure of plants, from human anatomy to fish eggs, honed his observation skills. What he learned from these detailed observations was of great benefit to him in his later inventions and artistic creations.
Francis Bacon said: “A man would do well to carry a pencil in his pocket, and write down the thoughts of the moment. Those that come unsought for are commonly the most valuable, and should be secured, because they seldom return.”
The visionary artist sees and gives expression to the deeper inner reality that we all experience. Through his art, we are able to experience more deeply our humanity, the mysteries of existence, and the god-like beauty of the human spirit. The poet gives voice to what we all know, but cannot express.
Life well-lived is the greatest art of all. The art of your life is not a matter of talent. It is a matter of mounting the courage to live. It’s mounting the courage to see what you really are, to be dazzled by the radiance that is you. Mounting the courage to imagine what this world could be.
“Know thyself,” said Thales. Knowing oneself is no less important today than it was in the sixth century B.C. Yet modern life runs at such a pace that we seldom take the time to examine our lives. We become strangers to ourselves–so caught up in seeking the approval of others or in oiling the great machinery of society that we take little time to pause and reflect upon the deeper issues of our existence.
“For the secret of man’s being is not only to live but to have something to live for.” –Dostoyevsky
Our educational system is of little help. We aren’t trained to be critical thinkers, to perceive the fundamental principles or values behind a given political, economic, social, or interpersonal agenda. The mass media tell us their version of current events with little debate about the fundamental value choices involved in major policy decisions. It is up to each of us to determine the cornerstone principles upon which our society stands and determine for ourselves their merit or fallacy. It’s up to each of us to determine the kind of future society we will create by deciding on the kind of values we will emphasize today.
For good or ill, ideas and the values they reflect have tremendous power to shape our world. The great debate of ideas must not be left to a few academics in ivory towers or “experts” on talk shows. It must become an integral part of everyday life if we are to create a sane and healthy society.
“The world is his who can see through its pretension. What deafness, what stone-blind custom, what overgrown error you behold, is there only by sufferance–your sufferance. See it to be a lie, and you have already dealt it its mortal blow.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Moral courage and character go hand in hand…a man of real character is consistently courageous, being imbued with a basic integrity and a firm sense of principle.”
— Martha Boaz
Of course, all three categories of meaning overlap. An artist may use his personal experience to express universals in a culturally relevant motif.
“Cowardice asks the question, Is it safe? Expediency asks the question, Is it politic? Vanity asks the question, Is it popular? But conscience asks the question, Is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must take it because his conscience tells him it is right.”
— Martin Luther
“We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow-men; and along those fibers, as sympathetic threads, our actions run as causes, and they come back to us as effects.”
— Herman Melville
“The more a man lays stress on false possessions, and the less sensitivity he has for what is essential, the less satisfying is his life.”
— Carl Jung
“We are prone to judge success by the index of our salaries or the size of our automobiles rather than by the quality of our service and relationship to mankind.”
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
“Thus to be independent of public opinion is the first formal condition of achieving anything great…”
— G.W.F. Hegel
Everything we do is a message, a communication. Every action has a message in the way that every musical note has a sound. There are no soundless notes any more than there are “messageless” actions or characters. Every message has a tone, creating ripples that uplift or diminish life. Think of the Zen gardens. The careful attention given to the placement of each object speaks to us. It says everything counts.
Where any purpose is denied, look for dollar signs–a sense of life as a commodity. Underlying so much of the work of the twentieth century is this notion that life is a cheap commodity.
The life spent doing what you love is a different life indeed from putting yourself out for hire to the highest bidder.
“When you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project, all your thoughts break their bounds: Your mind transcends limitations, your consciousness expands in every direction and you find yourself in a new, great and wonderful world. Dormant forces, faculties and talents become alive, and you discover yourself to be a greater person by far than you ever dreamed yourself to be.”
— Patanjali
“For what profiteth a man, if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?”
— Mark 8:36-37
“The trouble with the rat race is that even if you win, you’re still a rat.”
— Lily Tomlin
“Life must be lived as play.”
— Plato