The written section is some thoughts on art and creation…
The audio is a bonus episode about psychedelics and the dangerous rabbit hole…
Enjoy!
"You must have chaos within you....to give birth to a dancing star." — Friedrich Nietzsche
"No art is possible without a dance with death."— Kurt Vonnegut
What if all art is built from some existential awareness we hold within ourselves? Is it the things we see and feel in our everyday lives that inspire us to create? Or is it something deeper, something more intangible? Perhaps it's the knowledge that life is fleeting and uncertain that drives us to leave our mark on the world.
Maybe it's recognizing that the perception of our own essence is—in many ways—always fleeting. We perceive ourselves, we perceive others, and somewhere within that perception, we recognize the uncertainty of that perception...the uncertainty of our own essence.
And maybe through the uncertainty of our own essence, we find that desire to create. We find that through the act of creation we can begin making something that was once intangible—tangible.
Even if what has become tangible remains uncertain...
"Writing keeps death at bay. Every book I write is a triumph over death. We work against death all the time. If we didn't know we'd die, we'd wonder around and sleep like cats." — Ray Bradbury
I wonder if we all want something that will outlast us. Maybe whether we realize it or not, we're all searching for a legacy.
A legacy?
Through creation, we inevitably create a legacy...one that comes in response to that existential awareness of the finite moments we are experiencing. This awareness reminds us of our own mortality—and from this, we are more likely to seek out ways to create something that will outlive us.
We wish to make the experience of the internal...external...
"I wrote a book almost unconsciously, like a somnambulist, and was amazed when I realized what I had done." — Goethe
"If you have nothing at all to create, then perhaps you create yourself." — Carl Jung
What do we do with that inner chaos when that awareness of death enters our state or essence?
We make something of our chaos that we hope can be comprehended, felt, and maybe shared. And so we dance with death...knowing that it is only through this dance that we can unleash an inner understanding. And maybe it's through this dance with creation that we can truly live.
"The mainspring of creativity appears to be...man's tendency to actualize himself, to become his potentialities." — Carl Rogers
Stay curious.
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