Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Unleashed

“What you really have to do, if you want to be creative, is to unlearn all the teasing and censoring that you’ve experienced throughout your life. If you are truly a creative person, you know that feeling insecure and lonely is par for the course. You can’t have it both ways: You can’t be creative and conform, too. You have to recognize that what makes you different also makes you creative.” Arno Penzias, 1978 Nobel Prize winner for physics
Unlearn. Unlearn the past. Unleash the memory. Undo the experience.

And learn.

Learn to be unique. To be nonconforming. To be unconventional.

Learn to let yourself shine. To let yourself be the mirror of your perfection. The reverse side of the coin of your imperfection.

Let your imperfection be your perfect expression.

It is the way of the artist. The path of the creative.

To be. Different. Out of step with the norm. In tune with the muse. In concert with perfection. In harmony through imperfection.

I struggle with this. the nonconformity. The being different. The being perfectly embraced by my imperfection.

I struggle.

I want to fit in. To be part of the 'in', on the inside of 'society circles' where smiles skim the surface of perfectly groomed handshakes holding firm and coiffed do's up the ante of the woman behind the power of an empire building standing tall.

And I want to be out. Outside the in crowd. Standing tall. Standing up for who I am and what I believe in.

I want to be beyond the norm. At the edge of conventional. Tumbling over the edge of conformity.

I don't want to be part of the cocktail circuit.

I want to rip off my cocktail dress and stand naked and at ease in the awkward streets of my nonconformity making waves.

I want to be embraced in the creative circle of my dreams exploding sideways and into ways I never imagined.

Inside. Off side. Outside. Upside down.

Within the inner side of my creative soul feeling its wet juicy skin slipping beneath my touch. Slipping away into that place where I am holy within my creative essence, unfettered by convention, unhampered by rules of engagement.

I want to be free. Of being conscious of your thinking about what I'm doing. I want to be free of worrying about your opinion.

Can't be free when I'm tied to the belief, I need to fit in to have meaning. To have a place at your table I must dress in your clothing.

I want to dress in my skin and be exposed.

It's okay to be different. It's okay to be me.

The quote at the top of this blog came from Kathy Richards blog this morning Stay Hungry. It's a really inspiring read and I invite you to click on over to her place and have a read.

I wanted to try some free-form associative writing this morning and Penzias' quote and Kathy's blog were the perfect inspiration.

Try it.

Let the words settle into you and then, unhook your thinking, release your fingers and let them fly across the keys.

You might be amazed at what appears. I was!

4 comments:

Maureen said...

I like how you riffed on Kathy's post. She's a great encourager.

At a small arts festival this coming weekend in which I'm participating, an artist is giving a talk about "becoming" an artist. He's a painter and is an elder who works with elders. He remarked to me the other day how wonderful it is to help others see that creativity is not limited to the few but a matter of finding the taproot.

katdish said...

Wow. You were quite inspired, Louise.

That's one of my favorite quotes. He put into words what I learned the hard way. There is such utter freedom in caring less about what people think and more about the Spirit inside each of us knows to be true - that there is beauty in each of us, and it is a unique to each of us. It's like wearing a custom made dress as opposed to one 2 sizes too big or small.

Kathleen Overby said...

You wrote them for me. Exactly. Kathy's post rattled me good too. :)

S. Etole said...

Sounds like I'd better take a trip over there ... you inspire.