The Pythagorean Storyteller: May 2012

Friday, May 25, 2012

38

SILENCE REVEALS

Silence reveals,

When feeling a warm, soothing shower in the presence of someone who lives in their heart.

Silence reveals,

When receiving a smile from someone who has no material thing.

Silence reveals,

When plunging into the experience of acknowledging love, trascending thought, trascending words.

Silence reveals,

When a look freezes painful common experiences, and later they melt into a loyal bond.

Silence reveals,

When the world of form torments, and one finds comfort in their peaceful shelter, their own self.

Friday, May 18, 2012

37

MUST I WRITE?

PARIS

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

February 17, 1903

You ask whether your verses are any good. You ask me. You have asked others before this. You send them to magazines. You compare them with other poems, and you are upset when certain editors reject your work. Now (since you have said you want my advice) I beg you to stop doing that sort of thing. You are looking outside, and that is what you should most avoid right now. No one can advise or help you—no one.

There is only one thing you should do. Go into yourself. Find out the reason that commands you to write; see whether it has spread its roots into the very depths of your heart; confess to yourself whether you would have to die if you were forbidden to write. This most of all: ask yourself in the most silent hour of your night: must I write?

Dig into yourself for a deep answer. And if this answer rings out in assent, if you meet this solemn question with a strong, simple ‘I must,’ then build your life in accordance with this necessity; your whole life, even into its humblest and most indifferent hour, must become a sign and witness to this impulse. Then come close to Nature. Then, as if no one had ever tried before, try to say what you see and feel and love and lose.

Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a young poet. New World Library, 2000, pp. 10-11

Friday, May 11, 2012

36

THE IMMORTALITY OF CREATIVITY

NOVELIST: How tragic that man can never realize how beautiful life is until he is face to face with death.

—Ikiru, 1952, Akira Kurosawa.

THERE IS BUT ONE TRULY SERIOUS FEAR, and that is death.

The rest are just trivial ramifications with which the game of life keeps us entertained. Until the alarm goes off. ‘Too soon. Too soon,’ you cry. They have programmed it without your consent. And ironically the alarm goes off to remind you what life is. Just death can tell. It whispers, ‘It’s a gift.’ And that dreadful shot to your soul happens to be an awakening experience; and perhaps from then on, there will be no embrace of comfort.

Throughout history, many thinkers and philosophers have reflected on the finiteness, the pool of emptiness in which we will undoubtedly fall in. Humans try to anesthetize the anxiety of death by having descendants. As French writer Françoise Sagan put it, ‘You wish to have a child at some point in life; perhaps to die less when you die.’

Is creativity an immortal project, too?

Everybody can be creative to begin with—Don’t let anyone fool you with the contrary—. Perhaps it’s just a matter of dropping all what you have learned in order to create something new, something that stems from your inner being. Then, the absorption, the assimilation of life leaves imprints in a form of poetry, a composition, a recipe, a way of thinking, etc.

But setting your name in lights on billboards for prosperity, does it matter much? Does it alleviate us?

Every spring a flower blooms around some bushes in a field where I go running. I don’t remember the flower’s name, but I never forget its beauty, its fragance.

Namaste.

Friday, May 4, 2012

35

THE CHALLENGE TO MAKE GOOD DECISIONS

[OPENING LINES]: Choices. Life is nothing more than an extended string of them. Some have little impact, and others can change your life entirely. While we are free to make our own choices, both good and bad, we’re not free to choose the consequences.

—Karma Police, 2008, John Venable.

WE ARE CHALLENGED TO MAKE DECISIONS IN LIFE—AND FICTION. Some decisions have no substantial consequences. To buy a Godiva chocolate bar or El Rey chocolate bar makes no difference for a person. Albeit the former is originally from Belgium, and the latter is from

Venezuela

, both are fine chocolate1. Yet other realities not only require the acknowlegment, but also the acceptance of possibly making mistakes. And this fear paralizes action.

Although we often learn by trial and error, it’s interesting how the following three steps can lead you to overcome the challenge to make decisions—most likely, to make good decisions—, and to become more reflective.

First, coping with some sort of pain. That’s really important since how you react to the pain will determine your decision-making. Are you a crybaby? Impatient for results, for good results? Or are you strong and keep calm under pressure? Heroes usually keep strong, despite having to deal with several setbacks. We love to read about them. In real life they dwell in the darkness.

Second, are you worried about appearing good or achieving your goal? In the outer world where appearances are highly salable, one can be more worried about looking good than being good. In storytelling, we all know the figure of the bullshitter. So we do in real life.

Third, making decisions on the basis of the second, and third order consequences. Check out my blog post num. 10.

Without a trace of doubt, emotional reactions can stop us to be deliberate. And although in fiction, this emotional treat is used to create a peculiar character, to combat this impetuousness in life, researchers have found out that using a second language—non-automatic language—in your decision-making promotes analytical thought and reduces unthinking, emotional reaction. Definitely something else to consider in order to make good decisions.

1 Chocolates El Rey is a Venezuelan company that processes some of the best cacao beans in the world. El Rey commands a 30% price premium for its cacao which is bought by the great chocolate houses in Belgium and Switzerland. But as consumers believe that the best chocolate comes from those last countries, Chocolates El Rey has had a hard time to sell outside its home market because of its provenance. In marketing terms, this is known as the Provenance Paradox.