“Most of what we inherit is so clearly correct it goes unseen. It fits the world seamlessly. It is the world. But despite its richness an variability, the well-defined world we inherit doesn’t quite fit each one of us, individually. Most of us spend most of our time in other peoples’ worlds–working at predetermined jobs, relaxing to pre-packaged entertainment–and no matter how benign this ready-made world may be, there will always be times when something is missing or doesn’t quite ring true. And so you make your place in the world by making part of it–by contributing some new part to the set. And surely one of the more astonishing rewards of artmaking comes when people make time to visit the world you have created. Some, indeed, may even purchase a piece of your world to carry back and adopt as their own. Each new piece of your art enlarges our reality. The world is not yet done.”
This statement was from a book that I recently finished, Art & Fear. This caught my attention quickly and something that I have been struggling with for the past couple of months now. At first I thought what I was doing in the world wasn’t for me, which it still is, but I could see the benefits that it had for the world. Then I began thinking about what my new direction in life would bring to the world. How would it make it a better place and how I can fully become one in it. After that thinking I just said it doesn’t matter what I want to do brings some kind of well being for the world, I just have to do what makes me happy. If I’m not happy than what’s the point of living a life at all (I love my life and not going to end it. Some people take my writing to literal, I just wanted to address this right now). Then I read this statement. It stopped me in my tracks. And made me whole instantly.
Whatever I create I do it for my satisfaction and also to give back to the world. I love writing my thoughts, essays that speak to me almost instantly, the novel that I’m writing and the other pieces that I will create that will bring inspiration and loathing to their lives or me. I’m ready for that. Photography is an art that simply expresses what I can’t say in my writings. It gives me the visual freedom to capture a moment in time the way I see it and for other people to tear apart, admire or be indifferent. This is what helps me to find some kind of meaning in the world–not what I’m constantly mad about during the week.
If there is anything in your life that just moves you. That just takes you to another world that you are so familiar with and love, than you have to be one with that world. You have to want to see what the world brings you and to gain the confidence you know that is inside you to make it one with the conscious reality. If that is done than you can live a more real and fulfilling life. And you at least owe that to yourself to see if that other world is worth making real.