The following is part of an essay I wrote back in high school, part of a paper deemed "too abstract" and given a D. I was offered the chance to rewrite the paper and improve my grade...I didn't. What is "Proper?" How do you define abstract? Why are question marks so damn beautiful!!?
I was reminded of the following essay by the video which follows the essay.
Stand back. Take it in. Wait, you’ll miss it, slow down. There before you it’s becoming clear. Suddenly the old cliché hits you, “the big picture.” A wall rushes in flooding your perceptions, before you a continuous line of imagery, you catch up; Incredible? Yes. Incomprehensible? No, though very near to it. You see the picture. Beauty beyond normality strains your eyes as you struggle to maintain consciousness. You stand outside the universe looking in, as if attending some sort of cosmic art gallery. The picture, it magnifies, ten, twenty, eighty, a trillion times. You see a person, it’s you. The still image comes to life as vivid as if you were there. Freeze frame, zoom out. A city, movement once again, thousands of lives before you individually, yet collectively; a jolt! It’s emotion. You feel them, not good, not bad, a new sensation: love, hatred, shame, joy, alarm, sorrow, all in one; spectacular. Stop. Zoom out. Before you once more, the sole image of radiant beauty, “The Big Picture.”
Monday, June 13, 2011
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
I Don't Know But Someone Had a Pretty Good Idea
Many things have been said through the ages, applicable to the whole range of human feeling. Are there any new thoughts to be had? If there are not, the very least we can do is to express the old ones as we experience them individually. And if we are not great orators or writers ourselves, let us pass on what ideas we discover by any means necessary! Much has been said and those words of others you stumble across, though not your own, become your own if the feelings behind them are genuine.
Wisdom is a treasure that only enriches you when it is shared. No small part of life is dedicated toward understanding: nature, people, actions and consequences, the world and our places in it. Learning is not to be defined for its recognition by others. Knowledge may be gained actively or passively and transferred in the same manner. Who is to judge what makes one a fool? Who has the authority to say what is or isn't art, what is beautiful? Express your thoughts and feelings for your own sake. The failure of others to recognize or appreciate them is a loss only to them and you may not be held accountable for their ignorance. What great things have you to offer the world?
There is a faint memory of the fear I'd lost my imagination. That terrible point when I realized I no longer possessed that unchained mind of a child, able to believe whole heartedly anything my brain could fathom. How scary is the acceptance of "reason!" All the world it seemed had somehow pulled me down from an elevated plane, made me dull as it was. But the world is not dull!-rather it is more rich and vibrant than my imagination could ever conceive on its own accord. My imagination had not suffered some silent death but required awakening, a rebirth so to speak. Reason is not destructive; it tempers creativity giving it definition. My thoughts are still untamed and largely without direction but how else can we describe imagination or creativity. Reluctance to accept things the way they are is the foundation of change and progress.
Coherent? Hardly. What I write is honest and, as stated above, for myself. But part MUST be for you since I keep ending with these pleas that something will strike a chord within you as the ideas that prompted the essays struck within me.
Wisdom is a treasure that only enriches you when it is shared. No small part of life is dedicated toward understanding: nature, people, actions and consequences, the world and our places in it. Learning is not to be defined for its recognition by others. Knowledge may be gained actively or passively and transferred in the same manner. Who is to judge what makes one a fool? Who has the authority to say what is or isn't art, what is beautiful? Express your thoughts and feelings for your own sake. The failure of others to recognize or appreciate them is a loss only to them and you may not be held accountable for their ignorance. What great things have you to offer the world?
There is a faint memory of the fear I'd lost my imagination. That terrible point when I realized I no longer possessed that unchained mind of a child, able to believe whole heartedly anything my brain could fathom. How scary is the acceptance of "reason!" All the world it seemed had somehow pulled me down from an elevated plane, made me dull as it was. But the world is not dull!-rather it is more rich and vibrant than my imagination could ever conceive on its own accord. My imagination had not suffered some silent death but required awakening, a rebirth so to speak. Reason is not destructive; it tempers creativity giving it definition. My thoughts are still untamed and largely without direction but how else can we describe imagination or creativity. Reluctance to accept things the way they are is the foundation of change and progress.
Coherent? Hardly. What I write is honest and, as stated above, for myself. But part MUST be for you since I keep ending with these pleas that something will strike a chord within you as the ideas that prompted the essays struck within me.
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