Prompted by the first part of this wonderful essay, I thought again about what I am.
Am I a photographer? Yes and no.
Am I an artist? Yes and no.
Am I a writer? Yes and no.
Am I an entrepreneur? Yes and no.
I am all of the above, and if you put them all together, they still make only a very tiny tile in the mosaic that... at least I wish to be.Some of my most important work is pure research into the human condition and into aesthetics, and into communication, and spiritual spheres. But there is no money in that, and the audience is tiny beyond belief, so not many people ever hear of it.
Last but not least, what I am is just a weak hint of what I might be, and I believe this to be true of anybody, and indeed of the human race.
I feel honour bound on behalf of myself to make the comment that folk interested in communications and aesthetics isn't that tiny these days, and there really is money to be made. Take Scientology for an example! They made MILLIONS in the 1950s with very esoteric things, and then of course, there's Harry Potter ...
ReplyDeleteI work very hard to "realise" the absolute belief that civilisations across the board will reward honest researchers and contributors in these fields, for they are necessary , valuable and rare, at that.
Let's be proactively positive! (For if we won't, who will be?)
SFX
Great essay!
ReplyDeleteAs for what you are, you are a spiritual being.
You photograph, you produce art, you write (edit, publish), you run a business - that's all good and well but doesn't say a thing about what you are.
All the things you listed describe what you do but fall far short of saying what you are, as any categorisation does.
Try describing anything, like a car, by saying what it does and not saying anything about what it is, and see how clear an idea you can convey of what a car actually looks like.
What you do and, more so, how you do it, just expresses a small part of what you are, but it's not the real thing, i.e. you.
Silvia, it's a deal.
ReplyDeleteYou forgot to adjust for the low slope of my forehead, and you went way over it here.
ReplyDeleteI was talking about asserting loudly and persistently, I was neither in this case.
ReplyDeleteI can see, looking at it now, how you might see the post as self-aggrandizing. I did not think of it this way, because I was thinking of it as a universal statement. I thought it was obvious that this is true for everybody. I better clarify it.
I do not see the roles I mentioned as Formidable. Anybody can be a Jack of All trades, it just takes a lack of concentration. :)
I've always believed it : human life (and therefore a human person) is first of all a wonderful and near-infinite potential.
ReplyDeleteYou've got to love that.
Adam,
ReplyDeleteSpeak for the devil ---> sound like the devil!
:)
I am not sure how philistines and lions are related to this post. I am just saying we all can become way more than we are. And possibly way more than anything currently recognized.
We all start at different points. And possibly some people have a few lifetimes of growth just to become decent human beings, but the point still holds.
This why I enjoy reading your blog...You're never boring...(Well, I shouldn't say never)...
ReplyDeleteBut.. your thoughts and comments can be light as well as deep and sometimes instructive and sometimes downright provoking...
On the other hand, some of the comebacks are wonderfully imaginative and also provoking and instructive as well...
You seem to lay your whole life on the line for folk like myself to see and comment on...
My question is, "Why?"
But even as I type, I know that the answer is, "Why not?"
I don't wish to polish your ego...but the truth is ...you're a very interesting person...and I have found out about people, places and things in this world that I would have never known about had I not discovered DOMAI and your blog on the internet...
As the some of the young folk say around here,"Kick a__, man"...
Uncle Ron,
ReplyDeleteThank you very much. Very kind of you.
Why do a blog? Well, not for the money, for sure. :)
I love to write, I love to point out cool things to friends.
And on the World Wide Web I meet many important people like you guys, who I maybe never would have met otherwise.
Also a blog is ideal for my temperament: shooting off a couple of paragraphs when I have an idea, something which is too short for an article, but worth putting out there anyway.
"You seem to lay your whole life on the line for folk like myself to see and comment on..."
ReplyDeleteOh there are quite a lot of areas I *don't* lay on the line on the blog, trust me. :)
And that ain't no joke.
ReplyDelete(Who you be quotin' there?)
Adam Czarnowski wrote : "I like to question received ideas."
ReplyDeleteWell, I don't know where it comes from either, but I like people who like to question received ideas. :-)
Some other people hate me for that. ):-P
Which somehow doesn't make me as unhappy as they'd wish!
I agree with Uncle Ron : this is a definitely fine site and blog. (Well, d'uh!) Otherwise -modesty aside!- I certainly wouldn't bother participating! I've seen too many forums that just inspire pity. Like Alice's Caucus race. ;-)
(By Lewis Carroll, Esq.)
I use iChat/AIM.
ReplyDeleteBut I find chat unsuited for serious discussion. It is like sitting several people at a party. The talk goes all over the place in one big jumble.