Beyond The Words

By forthright thinking a man will arrive at the truth. Not by vain thinking in words, but by the meaningful thinking that springs from the source.

Karl Jaspers
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Wisdom often arrives at the door dressed in strange garb. Some say that writing is not a true art form. For the painter the color spectrum is the same the world over, and for the musician the tonal relationships never vary, Both tones and colors depend on natural law. But language is a variable thing. It changes from age to age, from nation to nation and even sometimes within a single nation. Some words have multiple meanings and thus a statement may be misinterpreted. Some authors have been arrested, and killed because of what they wrote or what someone thought they wrote.

All art can be dangerous, not just to the artist but to those who don't understand it. Like all art I think of literature not as an end, a purpose, a thing in itself, but rather as a door, a gate, a shrine. We go to a shrine to worship, not to worship the shrine but what it stands for, a god or goddess, a saint or an idea, a truth.

A writer's tools are words. But we are bombarded by words from every side: on every milk carton, soup can, on advertising brochures, papers and the Internet. It seems that words are like unsubstantial flecks of dust twirling around us, or piling up in the corners of our minds. With his tools the writer attempts to fashion something. It he's good it could be a poem, a letter or a story; something important.

When I'm writing I often stop and ask myself if what I've just typed is what I really want to say. That question needs to be answered on three levels. First, have I chosen the right words, is it clear? Second, have I thought clearly enough to address the subject I'm writing about, have I perhaps stumbled in my own thinking and haven't really grasped the truth of what I'm saying, And third, does the real meaning of what I'm trying to write come from that place behind the words and beyond the shrine, where the universal mind, the source, resides and speaks. Sometimes I don't get an answer to the third part of that question. But sometimes I do. And I'm grateful for those times.

It's a humbling but glorious condition to be even monetarily in tune with an intelligence beyond one's usual ability. It's a cleansing experience, an atonement, an epiphany, an elixir of spirit. It's the best reward there is for an artist's labor.

Have I said everything I want to say on this topic? No. I patiently await the words.

DB - The Vagabond
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SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest.)

In your opinion what is the most amazing thing that could happen during this decade? Make it as outrageous as you want but keep it within the realm of what you consider a possibility.

Only 4 responses so far.

Answers will be published the first day of Summer.

dbdacoba@aol.com

DB - The Vagabond
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