Sunday, June 1, 2014

Selling Your Art

Selling Your Art

At the very least you are a vital cell
in a cosmic holy body. 

And everyone works so hard,
no matter what they do. 

There is no place for you to go
but onward to a greater freedom.

The poor man rarely parties 
because of so many cares.
We should put an end to that. 

Knowledge can be pawned for a good sum.
Find some truth and mix it with your talents. 

If you can get the right balance 
shops will start selling your art.

And maybe even a masterpiece you will become,
your every gesture. 

        Kahlil Gibran wrote to Mary Haskell with a concern that he was no longer deriving as much enjoyment from his past works because his mind was intent on a constant yearning towards the future - in which, he presumed, his real destiny would be fulfilled. On January 28, 1915: "It used to give me pleasure to hear people praising my work - but now I am strangely saddened by praise, because praise reminds me of things not yet done - and somehow I want to be loved for what I have not done yet. If plants are certain of a coming spring, through which they will come out of themselves, why cannot I, a human plant, be certain of a spring to come, in which I will be able to fulfill myself? Perhaps my spring is not in this life, Mary."
       After Kahlil expressed doubt in his work and progress to his goals, Mary sent the most beautiful reply dated February 2, 1915: "I am always with you coming self, Kahlil. To what you say of loving what is not yet realized, my whole being says "Yes". The future of each thing is like the plan of a building; the part built so far in the past - and the present is the bricks now being laid. Is it chiefly the bricks that we love when we say we love the building? Life is a never-ending building. What-To-Love is a fundamentally human problem. And if we have this solution - Love what may Be - we see that this is the way Reality loves - and that there is no other loving that lasts or understands. It is the Future I love in these things of yours hanging here. But you know, Kahlil, it is the Future, that unlimited something - in a picture of anything, or a person, that makes it beautiful."
       Today my sister graduated high school, so a huge congrats! I hope she "finds some truth and mixes it with her talents", I hope she remembers the pursuit of the Ideal (not necessarily the Real) is a way to find beauty in life, and I hope she knows she will always be loved! Congratulations, Emery! 

Pomp and Circumstance, March No.1, Elgar

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