Practice any art, music, singing,
dancing, acting, drawing, painting, sculpting, poetry, fiction, essays,
reportage, no matter how well or badly, not to get money and fame, but to
experience becoming, to find out what’s inside you, to make your soul grow. –Kurt Vonnegut
This strikes me
as a very bold piece of advice especially given the expectations we have of
even our small children—that they should take an interest in their native
passions ultimately with an eye to performance, rather than a means of taking
joy in self-expression and personal growth—an end in itself.
The quote was
taken from this letter he wrote to a high school class, but I think it is good
advice for any of us to follow who are looking for a little more juice and
sustenance in our everyday lives.
And I think, in
this regard, that the thing we really need/want from life is to feel more enthusiasm,
joy and love—relatively simple pleasures, accessible, there for the taking, which
is where creativity and the arts come into play.
Play being the operative word. Enthusiasm, joy and love of life
are nowhere more apparent than in acts of play—singing, dancing, fiddling with
a piece of music on the piano, writing, colouring—that have no other end than
the simple, but vital, edification we get from participation in the process,
not the performance or final product.
Performances are
fine. There is nothing so thrilling as beholding the excellence of a
well-executed performance, but even this level of excellence needs to be rooted
in a foundation of enthusiasm, joy and love, else it becomes one more thing
draining one’s life energy rather than enhancing it.
We do not, after
all, exist to live up to the expectations of others, nor they to ours.
Crafting our
lives using enthusiasm, joy and love as guide posts, therefore, makes sense. And
practicing art for the experience of becoming, of finding out what’s inside us,
of making our soul grow also makes sense.
So, don’t wait
for permission (either your own or others) and don’t waste time believing you
need to be an expert in order to justify participating in an act of creation.
All any of us really need is our native passion and enthusiasm.
All any of us really need is our native passion and enthusiasm.
