success or significance
Something different, only related to music in that art is related to life:
Right now, it’s not just natural, it’s necessary that we’re all looking at what’s wrong in the world. As we try to take intelligent action with respect to the financial crisis, as we formulate our opinions regarding the upcoming elections, we have to look at the status quo, notice what’s not working and see what we can do to change that. As we look at the effects of hurricanes and other personal tragedies, it would be inhuman not to notice the suffering and reach out. We have to notice what’s wrong to fullfill the basic requirements of being a human being. It’s not a sufficient task, but it is a necessary one.
So I was surprised this week to be reminded that it’s also necessary to notice what’s right. I’ve got a doubting streak that normally makes me view anything “motivational” with a very cynical eye, but this one came by way of someone I trust, and hits me right.
Why not take the time to really see what’s possible? Dewitt Jones is a National Geographic photographer, and his ideas translate readily for any artist. Why settle for success, when you could go for significance? But it applies beyond artists, to anything worth doing.
Anyway. It’s 22 minutes long, so choose a time when you’ve got the time. You can read more about it here.
Celebrate What's Right With The World
Tell me what you think. I’m since back to angsting over the banking industry, but calmer times are bound to come.
categories: thought
tags: Dewitt Jones, optimism, photography
posted by boolz at 10:16 pm
I’m glad I opted to read this over lunch, before it was deleted!
I liked it very much. Many good ideas – accelerating possibility curve as opposed to learning curve, surfer and bird-on-thermal analogies, Michelangelo quote on appearance of the marble suggesting to him what he should sculpt, falling in love through the lens (I love photography), “when I weave, I weave.”
Not sure I’m remembering this accurately, but he referred to expanding our edges — both external and internal? Reading it made me think of these lyrics, so I think that’s at least close:
We are clouds
We are whispers
Like fauns and shape-shifters
Our edges can never be found out
No, our edges keep moving further out
Shortly after I was born, my parents moved into a house with a wonderful wall of glass bookcases in the living room. The woman who sold them the house was elderly, and she left behind a large collection of National Geographic magazines – some of them very old. I read them over and over for years. House and magazines are all gone now.
Well, I didn’t read it, I watched it. Doh.