Posts tagged Imaginations
Going On Beyond Paranoia
Dec 22nd
Many times we doubt the sincerity of people – whether this is justified or not. When we’ve ‘been engaged’ by these we’re often tempted to withdraw. At times this is wise. Other times, however, we’re obeying those untrustworthy voices in our head that are advising us incorrectly – in fear and not in love. They quickly retrieve their barely dry washing from the clothesline.
Staring out the window,
Spins does the line,
Drying the clothes,
Out in the sunshine.
Innocently it hangs,
Gracing the breeze,
Free of pangs,
No sense of fees.
Then sees does one,
Others peering o’er fences,
Reproach commanded,
Suddenly defences.
Out they go,
To entreat the lies,
To rescue the clothes,
Beyond prying eyes.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Paranoia becomes people quicker than it often ought. We’re stunned as our imaginations walk off the track of reason into the city of reconcilable, but convincing, fear. Such fear acts as a warning, but it is very often clearly short on truth.
The danger we engage with when we withdraw from life and become less transparent is we become less accountable to others and we block off ways that others might speak into our lives. Sure, at the very same time we’re wise to block certain others from esteeming such roles in our lives; those that have betrayed our trust, or who would, given the chance.
Leaving the Washing Out Instead
Despite the fading of the clothing that occurs when we leave clothing out in the sun for many days over the lifetime of the garment, there is a real sense of the purity-of-soul that we can establish for our transparency in the midst of such exposure.
We leave it out, exposed, so we can achieve a level of rugged authenticity, which is open to challenge and able to withstand the elements of open confrontation, but importantly in ways that respects all-comers as well as being self-respecting.
This is a personal strength, revealing a quiet and calm confidence, which many come to admire. In this, we’re safe people to be around; our strength is a magnet for which others are attracted to. And funnily enough, because we wear our hearts a little more on the sleeve we free others to do just that too.
Before we know it we have a community. This is a place where people are free to be the people God always wants us to be. We can be ourselves.
In a world of much hype, lots of lies and rare snippets of authenticity we can be a beacon where people find rest, and we do too with ourselves.
Copyright (c) 2010 S. J. Wickham.
The Power of Simplistic Imagery
Sep 2nd
It only takes a few sentences to describe a scene but with the simplicity of a small collection of carefully chosen words an author can create imagery more powerful than entire novels.
When people read literature they place themselves within the world created by the collaboration of their own imaginations and the descriptive words of an author.
Since we place our own point of consciousness into a scene as we read in many ways we are allowing ourselves to partially exist in that fictional reality similar to how we partially exist in the reality of our dreams, memories, or projected thoughts.
However, unlike dreams or memories, literature has been crafted by an author and the reality is dependent upon the words used to describe it.
Word count and simplicity come into play when a sentence bound to simplicity by its word count allows the reader to envision, and therefore experience, a scene untainted by the negative side of complexity.
Because we are given so little information about a scene we are limited from putting our own assumptions or judgments upon it and are left with only a scene of simplistic peace and serenity.
Picture a scene wherein a boy is rafting a billowed sail amidst a vast blue ocean under the sun. In but one sentence the reader’s focus is drawn towards an ocean, a boat, and the character experiencing it. There is no room for the reader to picture or consider the existence of any real world elements like famine, war, disease, poverty or even death.
The sentence imagery is too simple for negative judgment and comparable to the complex real world the scene is completely free of problems. It is as if the prose acts like a limited key hole with which we are able to view a scene only of beauty and peace.
If you read a delicate paragraph describing a man perched against a tree by a slowly running stream with a straw hat shading his eyes from the sun you experience that slight pocket of an imagined reality without having to endure problems that might exist if that scene took place in the real world.
Questions or judgments like why isn’t the man at work, the fact of whether he is married or not, if he is poor or rich or happy or unhappy do not arise within the painted picture. None of these real world elements matter; we are fulfilled by the image alone.
It is art’s greatest paradox that we can read literature about a character waiting at the bus stop or watch a scene in a film of someone waiting in a doctor’s office and not only enjoy it but praise it as a beautiful portrayal of reality, but when we are faced with these situations in our real lives we’re filled with nothing but anxious resistance and denial of the present moment.
This is why we need to bring the same perspective into our everyday life. If we simplify our own settings we can escape the grip of the world’s negativity and rest within every passing moment in simplistic peace.
We need simplicity in order to navigate through an infinitely complex universe. This is what Henry David Thoreau meant when he said:
‘Our life is frittered away by detail. Simplify, simplify.’
When you stand at a bus stop you are standing within a scene written into the story of your own life. You can either look and see a complex life situation filled with judgements and assumptions or, you can simplify it all and see an eternal scene, locked in time, held calmly in place by its own simplicity.
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