Myth Or Reality

The art of writing is the art of discovering what you believe.
– Gustave Flaubert

April showers bring May flowers. MYTH. Maybe once upon a time, like when and where I grew up, this came to pass. When and where I live now, the closest shower in this EARTH DAY month would be in my bathroom. Even a rain dance won’t summon up moisture from the California heavens. Yesterday when I taunted skyward, clouds darkened, hovered, then disappeared. REALITY. With sea levels, wildfires, extreme storm events and severe droughts on the rise, clearly global warming reigns.

While like John Lennon, I find reality leaves a lot to the imagination, it indeed does leave a lot to the imagination – and therefore offers possibility. I’ve always been skeptical of myths because paradoxically they impose boundaries. While myths represent the ways that ancient cultures sought to explain the origins of the world and of existence itself, reality often conflicts with these tales. Archetypes and slippery family lore tout artificial constructs and often inaccurate labels framed as grand wisdom.  

MYTH – Every story has been told.
REALITY – Not by you or me. No one has experienced the same intersection of chance and circumstance, nor perceived the same connections, tangled relationships, or intensity of a sound, a slight, a slice, a price to pay, a touch. No one has seen a vision through my hazel eyes, felt the same twinge of fear, inhabited my instincts, or been party to my loves, losses, and epiphanies. And no one has ever walked barefoot in my mocassins.

Great art is the outward expression of an inner life in the artist, and this inner life will result in his personal vision of the world.                                                                                                        – Edward Hopper

MYTH – You can’t write about him, or her or them or that (even though it happened to you, it’s your perception, not theirs) because he, she, or they will be offended, see it through a different lens and tell you it’s not true.
REALITY – Stay true to yourself. And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.
                                                ― Sylvia Plath, The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath

A few days ago, I gave a presentation on three iconic photographers of the West, Capturing the Essence, whose work connects with awe and respect for the Earth. Ansel Adams, artist and conservationist, portrays the grandeur of the land with heightened clarity. With an eye for shape and form, Edward Weston transforms nature to abstraction, revealing the undulating lines in a cabbage leaf and a nude figure. The life’s work of Edward Curtis, the North American Indian, preserves a vanishing way of life. His elegantly rendered portraits and images of rituals illuminate the strength and sorrows of the Native American.

REALITY – And while I stood there I saw more than I can tell and I understood more than I saw; for I was seeing in a sacred manner the shapes of all things in the spirit, and the shape of all shapes as they must live together like one being.
                                                   – Black Elk

I am appalled at the impact of the human footprint i.e. our thoughtless habits that now threaten the earth. If like me, you would like to savor the sweet scent of jasmine every April and gaze at soft purple jacaranda petals strewn on stone, eat fish not contaminated by man’s disregard for the sea, maintain rain forests to balance the ecology, and ensure water, clean air and a plentiful food supply for future generations, we need to change our ways.

MYTH – Write only what you know.
REALITY – Write what you care about. Write what you don’t know. Create to discover.
            When you are in doubt, be still, and wait;
            When doubt no longer exists for you then go forward with courage.
            So long as mists envelop you, be still;
            Be still until the sunlight pours through and dispels the mists
            – As it surely will.
            Then act with courage.
                                                    – Ponca Chief White Eagle

lakota

 

In honor of EARTH DAY be vigilant of the nature of the human footprint. Be creative.

REALITY – We will be known forever by the tracks we leave.

                                                     – Dakota

 

11 thoughts on “Myth Or Reality”

  1. Great post! I wholeheartedly believe that everything we do makes a difference and that we should not be afraid to enter unknown areas. Just like you with your writing, I totally feel like my art is an expression of myself and is not a place for inhibitions. I love that statement about how fear and self-doubt is the only thing keeping us from achieving greatness. Your words couldn't be truer.

  2. You have prodded me into discovering what Earth Day is all about! I knew in a general-principles sort of way, but now I have done a little exploration and am the better for it. “. . . humanity has already overshot global biocapacity by 30% and now lives unsustainably by depleting stocks of ‘natural resource.’” This gives me considerable cause for concern as no doubt it does to you and everyone else.
    One silver lining: in California our efforts to reduce water consumption is a positive first step not only to help save water but to help save our ‘natural resources.’
    Thank you Martha,

  3. Martha, here is some info for you and the country. On April 15, 1969 my son was born in Providence. It was the first EARTH DAY, that made me so happy. Then it was changed because obviously my son’s arrival was not that important but tax day was the same day and people have negative feeling about the 15th of April. So why didn’t they change income tax day !?!? right. Audrey

  4. With all the brains and brilliance on this earth today, lets find a way to collect more water pouring down everywhere but California and bring some of it to us.
    I too sat outside the past few evenings watching dark ominous clouds float across the sky-line of Southern California and give us not even two drops. Meanwhile, I think I am going to have to shower for 30 seconds in a bucket, catch the water and sprinkle it on my garden!

  5. Thank you, Martha!! I like the way you intertwined the quotes in your blog and I am always impressed with the depth of the thoughts of the Native American chiefs. They understood the sacredness of the earth. Terry Fyne

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