Iron rusts from disuse; water loses its purity from stagnation…
even so does inaction sap the vigor of the mind.
– Leonardo da Vinci
Over and over I hear the dilemmas of the creative process i.e. a game of chance. As a true Libran I have flogged the arguments to do or not to do without mercy. With the back up of an Ancient Chinese philosopher/poet, an Irish rocker/philanthropist, an Italian renaissance painter/inventor, an English playwright, a Canadian journalist, an American political activist, a Spanish painter/sculptor, an English painter/poet, a Roman Catholic Saint/Spanish mystic, and an American writer/mountaineer, I offer a menu of 7 dilemmas with paradoxical mantras to attempt to unlock the paralyzing questions.
1. TO DO OR NOT TO DO
Doing nothing is better than being busy doing nothing.
– Lao Tzu
To maintain focus on your smartphone, laptop, desktop and tablet, text, tweet, like, post and pin, sort data, scan to deposit, glimpse an episode, and catch a red eye requires speed and efficiency and sucks hours out of your life. In his book In Praise of Slowness, Carl Honore challenges our cult of speed. “We have the lost the art of doing nothing, of shutting out the background noise and distractions, of slowing down and simply being alone with our thoughts.” Be still. Use silence as a catalyst for creativity.
2. TO BEGIN OR NOT TO BEGIN
When I start any book, I have no idea what I’m going to do.
– Jon Krakauer
You might wonder at this statement from a man who climbs mountains with his eye to the top. His liberating “no idea” concept not only got him started on his compelling account of climbing Mt. Everest Into Thin Air, but found him on the summit in the opening paragraph! If you don’t start, you can’t finish. If you don’t finish, you can’t be judged, hence an infinite list of reasons why it’s not quite time to begin, thus you are off the hook indefinitely. Just start. Anywhere!
3. TO SEE OR NOT TO SEE
If a man wishes to be sure of the road he treads on, he must close his eyes and walk in the dark.
– St. John of the Cross
This one combines dilemma 1 and 2. Take away one sense (or rational thought) to heighten another. Trust your instincts. Both blind and deaf, Helen Keller said she pitied the person with sight, but no vision. A limitation can prove rewarding and foster creativity. Walk in the dark to find the light.
4. TO TRY OR NOT TO TRY
Mistakes are the portals of discovery.
– James Joyce
From the womb our culture values perfection over experimentation. An experiment is a procedure undertaken to make a discovery, from the Latin experiri meaning try. So why would we negate this process of trial and error? Push boundaries, create limitations, pose hypotheses, and give it a try. Take chances…
5. TO CONTROL OR NOT TO CONTROL
Those who control their passions do so because their passions are weak enough to be controlled.
– William Blake
Passion overrides the caution of reason and fuels creativity. When faced with uncertainty or danger, logic whispers swerve. Taught to ignore this perception when I came of age driving on icy Canadian roads, I learned to – accelerate into the skid!
6. TO BE OR NOT TO BE
It’s stasis that kills you off in the end, not ambition.
– Bono
In despair Hamlet wrestles with his demons to be or not to be, as he contemplates suicide. His love Ophelia goes mad and drowns. Did she choose to be or not to be? In literature or life, we may encounter a moral dilemma that rests on a life or death decision. Hopefully, this is a metaphor. No longer at Everest base camp, we have ascended to the ever thinning air of Camp 4 to face the final push. To be or not to be – the point in the creative process where the stakes are at their highest. Your call!
7. TO HOLD OR TO FOLD
And finally the dilemma of the end. When is it finished? I keep changing the ending to accommodate my current thinking. I don’t know how it ends. I just want to be done. I have been working on it for 10 years and I’m not ready to wrap it up. Here you face the final decision. The unforeseen consequence of all that went before. To hold or fold – that is the question. By now you will know…
When I sit in silence and appear to be doing nothing, this is when I see and hear the most. My characters begin to speak to each other and show me what they need to do. I need the stillness to watch and listen.
Just what I needed! You read my mind 🙂
Martha you are a Magnificent Muse!
Thank you!!!
Shawn
Your website is lovely and inspiring, as is your teaching and your books.
Ah, thanks for the inspiration. It helps to know there are so many fellow risk takers willing to do the thing badly. Then turn out to be "not terrible".
Loved this post Martha.
Procrastination is such a problem for most of us, and leads us into busyness and mindless time wasting – getting lost trolling the internet, obsession with social media and technology – always moving and going nowhere.
Not because we are lazy, but because we are afraid .
Afraid of the “what ifs” : what if I fail, what if i allow myself go do nothing ( i might hear what my inner self knows to be true.)
Only by silencing all these distractions and allowing time to do “nothing”, can we actually move towards creativity and authenticity.
As you said , just get started . If you ” fail “, so what. You are moving forward towards being, not just existing
Martha, this is EXACTLY what I needed to read, at this very moment, in my life. Love the seven dilemmas and your brilliant commentary. You have always been such an inspiration to me. Thank you for this.
Thank you Martha. Beautifully written. Insightful & full of "heart" as always !