Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Easy Does It

I like this meme. It comes from Maria with the following instructions:

Grab the book closest to you.
Open to page 123 and go down to the fifth sentence.
Post the text of next 3 sentences on your blog.
Name the book and the author.
Tag three people.


They demonstrate the true relationship between inspiration and perspiration and that, as Thomas Edison once observed, creativity (or a calling) is 2 percent illumination and the rest love and discipline. We are each Ulysses, lashed to the mast and ravished by the Sirens' song, and we are also his crew, ears plugged for safekeeping, bent over our oars and surely wondering who is the more dereft, Ulysses for having to hear the song or ourselves for being unable to.

All artistic practices, says writer Bharati Mukherjee, are "satellite dishes for hearing the signals the soul sends out," and each art form individually offers unique contributions to the work of decerning calls.

So there it is. This is from a book called Callings: "Finding and Following an Authentic Life" by Gregg Levoy. It comes from a chapter entitled "The Portals of Art".

I am compelled to add my two cents that creativity is mandatory, not optional. It doesn't matter if your creative self paints or writes or plays music or tickles children or cuts out paper dolls, but it does matter that you allow your heart and head sufficient time to do what you love. If you don't, it's my belief that true happiness will evade you. And the research scientists bear me out on this one.

Hey, Maria, I liked this meme. Thank you.

15 comments:

  1. Hmm -- I would do it except for the prosaic quality of my choice: "Natural ultramarine, in pigment form, is derived frpom the semi-precious stone lapis lazuli." As you can probably guess, I'm in my studio, at my desk and the closest book is "The Artist's Handbook." I also know you know that I shouted "hear! hear!" at your creativity comment...

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  2. yes, andrea, i know you know that i know, and it makes me happy to know that you know that i know.
    i'm sending every good wish i have your way right now.

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  3. I'm glad you liked it! I did, too!

    And I was just telling Mench that i felt that the book lines are like random message for you... much like when you open the Bible and read a verse.

    I would like to keep in mind what you said "… it does matter that you allow your heart and head sufficient time to do what you love."

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  6. Well, I am rather intrigued by the book you are reading. I suppose it gives us a glimpse of what is at our bedside or where we are presently located. To be honest, the book I was reading could not be posted in the meme unless my children did not know I blogged or someone did not know me.

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  7. ah ha. so the truth is coming out. your bedside book is double x rated. i knew it! nice try to offer a book on shells instead.

    i wasn't fooled for one moment...!

    :)

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  8. And why does it have to be double x-rated book? Why can't it be tripple x-rated or a self-help book on how to rule the world? Hmn?

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  9. ok, it might be triple x rated. or quadruple x rated. i concede that point easily.

    but i doubt it's on how to rule the world. you rule well enough on your own. you don't need a bit of help.

    sincerely,

    #1 fan

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  10. Your book sounds so interesting. I kind of really like this meme. It was so easy to do but going through what others are reading is so much fun!

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  11. So if you must know it is page 123 of Kate O'Beirne's book "Women Who Make The World Worse" where female POW Major Rhonda Cornum an Army flight surgeon and a proponent of women in combat explained in her book about her ordeal on how two broken arms and a bullet in her shoulder had not prevented an Iraqi guard from molesting her in many ways on the first of her seven days of captivity.

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  12. now that you've told what book it is, i feel terrible. i was inappropriately flippant.....

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  13. I am so glad I haven't opened the book someone gave my husband for Christmas. Get this -- The World's Worst Murders. How someone can give that kind of book as a Christmas gift is beyond me. But now that I think about it, I think I'll go look up page 123.

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