". . . it’s not always easy to be comfortable in the space created by open questions. Agoraphobia can set in. It’s tempting to hide in small rooms built from quick answers."
I am prompted to write by this metaphor.
Agoraphobia can be disabling. The limitation of movement. Consensus agrees this is generally considered a negative. However, we humans crave quick and uncomplicated answers. We seek the comfort of black and white, the solace of definitive solutions. We want them now. The quick and easy answers generally considered a positive. Yet, life rarely offers such neatly packaged resolutions. Instead, it throws us curveballs, presents us with riddles wrapped in enigmas, and leaves us standing amidst a kaleidoscope of uncertainties. Life gives us unsolvable conundrums. Sheldrake suggests that the easy answers may be disabling to us. Limiting.
To be true, we are afraid of getting lost in its infinite possibilities. But what if we embraced the discomfort? A favored virtue of mine is to be comfortable with mystery. What if we saw the hard, the complicated, the labor-intensive, not as a threat, but as a call to adventure? What if we dared to step out of the familiar rooms and into the open space, embracing the unknown with a sense of curiosity and wonder?
The open space, though daunting, holds immense potential. It is where creativity blossoms, where innovation takes root, where new perspectives emerge. It is in the vastness of the unknown that we find discovery. If we discover nothing - so what. Can we sit there in our unknowing? Hmm?
One of the little tricks of the mind I'll use in community theatre before an audition or show or whatever the case may be where I am feeling nervous or scared is to flip those words to "excited". Same rapid heart rate, but an entirely different energy. From "threat" to "adventure".
Thanks for your thoughts. So much here I understand and agree with. The one that stands out: " ... to be comfortable with mystery".
ReplyDeleteI don't believe, or perhaps I just don't want to believe, that people want quick and easy, uncomplicated, black and white answers. If that were so, so much of the art, literature and music that's out there wouldn't exist. Entangled Life wouldn't exist, or if it did no one would read it. After reading only about a half of it, I'm glad I prefer my reality nuanced, otherwise I would have put that book down after reading the Introduction. Cheers to your call to adventure!
ReplyDeleteI like quick and easy. Again, it may be because I am *tired* most of the time. But it it true what you note - art, lit and music does tend to come from the struggle, and the hard. I also don't call myself an "artist". Not a mushroom fan, Brian? I'm not, however, I was pleased that this book addressed all the different facets of the perspectives of mushrooms. And was pleasantly surprised at how he did apply a much larger paradigm than just the simple fungus.
DeleteAlso, thinking about art, and lit, and music coming from a center of struggle. How true is that! The best and most noted artists of any form generally have trauma, crisis, and struggle. There used to be a podcast called The Hilarious World of Depression, because so many comedians struggle with depression. Birth of any sort is a messy and painful process, I suppose.
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