Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Good Letters

Home
Catholic
Why We Make Art

Why We Make Art

Last updated on: May 20, 2013 at 1:00 am by Richard Chess

Why We Make Art 2013-05-17T09:12:41-07:00 Richard Chess

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

“Who you actually are is far bigger than the narrative you construct about who you are,” writes Jon Kabat-Zinn in Mindfulness for Beginners.

At this moment—end of semester, grades in, annual faculty record due, next year’s budget due, meetings to schedule, e-mails to respond to, office to clean, and the thousand and one things to do at home that have been ignored for months but there’s little time before I load the car and my son and I back out of the driveway, aim the car toward onto I-40W, Asheville to L.A.—I am feeling small, worn, reduced if not defeated.

And at this moment, 106 words into the unknown of this essay now two days late: doubt. Doubting my intelligence, talent, strength.

I know this story: I’ve been reading it for decades. Though who “I” was when the story of doubt, my doubt, was first written, I’m not, at this moment, sure, who else but “me” could have written the first draft?

I’m sure, at this moment, of only this: It’s easy as a writer to be unmovable and caught up in thinking there’s only one way of writing and telling a story, and believing that’s the only correct way in which to tell it.

Only this: I…have many negative stories I tell myself about who I am—an anxious person who has many flaws that often hold me back. But this is only a biased picture I paint of myself—is it necessarily true? I know I can…learn more about myself through meditating and examining further the stories I so often tell myself about who I am.

I’m sure of only this: those italicized words: they aren’t mine. They are a student’s words, a student who just finished a course I taught this semester, Contemplation and Imagination.

The occasion that created the conditions in which those insights arose? Students were asked to write a self-reflection essay, in which they were to draw on one observation or instruction offered by Jon Kabat-Zinn in his book Mindfulness for Beginners and apply that observation to reflections on the work they had done over the course of the semester: writing, reading, commenting on each other’s work-in-progress, practicing various kinds of mindfulness meditation.

You can do it, too! Pick one and apply it to your life, however you’ve been living it for, say, the last sixteen weeks:

Who you actually are is far bigger than the narrative you construct about who you are.

Our lives are simply bigger than thought.

Pay attention to what you are experiencing directly through your senses in this moment, including the sense of being embodied, before you clothe it in any kind of narrative.

Question and investigate in an open, curious, and systematic way who we are and where we are going.

See for yourself how things might actually be behind the veil of appearances and the stories we are so skilled at telling ourselves about how things are.

Some young (and not-so-young) writers are driven to the keyboard, the screen with a story to tell—here’s how you hurt me; I’m right, even righteous and you’re not; look at me! I’m (take your pick) gay, Muslim, Latino, differently-abled…

What if this young man, instead of shouting, used the occasion of writing to question and investigate his story, opening to the possibility that what hurts is home, a place to which he retreats then slams the door in the face of the unfamiliar, the unknown?

What if this young woman, instead of decrying, used the occasion of writing to awaken her curiosity about her roommate who flaunts her immodesty before the eyes of Christ?

What if you, instead of parading, used the occasion of writing to peer behind the veil of appearances?

Writing as practice: choosing the precise word; tuning each sentence to the perfect pitch.

And, when one experiences the urge, the often irresistible urge to know, to know now, to know with absolute certainty, no further investigation required—when one aches to express unambiguous meaning: writing to practice restraint.

“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by”

That interrupted “I”, that doubled “I”—dear Robert, dear Frost, is that one last look at both roads before choosing (“sorry I could not travel both / And be one traveler”)? Or is it art, the means by which you take, even today as I am with you in your poem, the road less traveled and “The Road Not Taken”? One traveler, you are, at once, every road taken and every road not taken.

Maybe it’s hard to hold that truth in thought. That’s why we make art, that’s why we turn to art because we know, as Jon Kabat-Zinn notes, “our lives are bigger than thought.”

Is Christ the Christ-less? Is suffering itself a source of comfort?

I don’t know. I am small, though not as small as I was 713 words ago. Thank God, or art, whichever is bigger, whichever is big enough to hold what I am and what I am not.

Previous Post

May 17, 2013

The Glass Coffin

Next Post

May 21, 2013 Controlling the Shot

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category A. G. Harmon Alissa Wilkinson Allison Backous Art Authors Brad Fruhauff Bradford Winters Bryan Bliss Caroline Langston Chad Thomas Johnston Chris Hoke Christiana N. Peterson Culture D.G. Myers D.L. Mayfield Daniel Bowman Jr. David Griffith Elizabeth Duffy Faith Film Greg Wolfe Guest Contributor Interview Jan Vallone Jeffrey Overstreet Jessica Eddings-Roeser Jessica Mesman Griffith Kelly Foster Lindsey Crittenden Morgan Meis music Natalie Vestin Nick Olson Peggy Rosenthal Personal Reflection Poetry Friday Reflection Relationships Review Richard Chess Richard Cole Sara Zarr Shannon Huffman Polson Sonya Bilocerkowycz Tania Runyan Tony Woodlief Topical Categories Uncategorized Vic Sizemore Writing

Select a Month October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 February 2008

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

How many days was Jesus tempted in the wilderness?

Select your answer to see how you score.

40 days 50 days 60 days 30 days