Robert John cook's art show #17

For most of us, when we are young we struggle to find our way as we try to map our future. Trying to plan our future without knowing where we’d like to be or what we want to be is perplexing. How we get to place we aren’t sure of, nor where it is even located, or if it even exists, is frustrating. Without knowing where we want to be means the direction toward the success we seek is often elusive, unclear, and without definition. From my glimpse of history, no one is a better example of this than Van Gogh. He tossed and turned in many different directions as he tired to find his place in the world, failure had tormented him. And how many times have each of us held different jobs, maybe changes majors in college, went from one hobby to another, as we sought our creative refuge. And today more than ever before perhaps far too many choices are in front of us. And we suffer from instant gratification being directly in front of us – meaning if we try something and it doesn’t instantly bring the success we are seeking we quickly turn to something else. Maybe in our haste we have just gone past the very thing we should have spent more time investigating - such as a hidden passion.

So how would you know your calling? Van Gogh didn’t understand painting as his calling until later in life, after searching and struggling through his torment. One day, long before Van Gogh ever painted, he strolled with an influential teacher of his. As they walked past Rembrandt’s old home Van Gogh’s teacher said, " Rembrandt died in poverty and disgrace."

"He didn’t die unhappy though," Van Gogh replied.

"No," the teacher returned, "Rembrandt had expressed himself fully and he knew the worth of what he had done."

"What if the world had been right in neglecting him?" Van Gogh asked.

"What the world thought made little difference. Rembrandt had to paint, the chief value of art lies in the expression it gives to the artist. Rembrandt fulfilled what he knew to be his life purpose, which ‘justified’ him."

In today’s world we are consumed with applying ourselves in the direction of success which may or may not be our calling. And our calling, I believe, is the only opportunity we have to live a ‘justified’ life. Without answering our calling we end up not ‘justifying’ our lives. A life not justified, it seems, is a life without success. But how on earth would you ever recognize what being ‘justified’ means. What does being ‘justified’ feel like?

Last Wednesday night I went to play my guitar as I usually do at a small pub in Hyannis. I arrived particularly early that night and as I brought my equipment in to set up to play I was greeted by an artist and musician I know. The artist was the singer, and the musician was playing lead guitar, they were already on stage and performing. I could ‘hear’ and ‘feel’ the rhythm of their music instantly. I quickly set up, strapped my guitar on, and joined in. It sounded like we had played together for a hundred years. It felt great. As we were into maybe the third song I felt ‘justified’ when I looked I looked down to my right hand and saw it brushing the strings very rapidly as it matched the beat of the drummer, and the bass player. The chords I was producing also matched the singer’s voice, and the lead guitar player was following the pattern. We were in synch. I looked at my right hand as it was moving in lightening speed and it was as if I was watching someone else’s hand at work. In that moment my hand and I were creatively connected. It felt as if my mind was capable of wandering to a different place. The place my mind had wondered to is a place art can bring us. Wether it’s painting with a brush, writing a short story, or playing a musical instrument, there are times when a three point connection takes place that puts one into this type of creative mediation. The three point connection comes from the first point of being creative, the intellectual thought of what it is you want to put on the canvas, the story you’d like to tell, or the song you’d like to sing. The second point of the connection is expressing the creativity is the physical aspect, the paint brush you choice, the pencil or computer you write with, the guitar or piano you play. The third point is taking the idea and letting it flow through your fingertips as you let it out.

Many years ago I read a book titled "Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance". It was a wonderful book which detailed the writer’s version of my overly simplified description of what it mean to connect the dots being what we want to create and how we create it. In the book the author did an outstanding job through his descriptions of employing his care for an old motorcycle as he journeyed across America. He delineated how connecting his care for his motorcycle came out in his focus as he combined his creativity with his physical attention into the motorcycle’s well being. He was focused on the motorcycle’s every vibration and subtle nuances. He was ‘justified’ in his concentration of his environment. The parallel to his explanation of his care for his motorcycle is easily translated into the expression of creative mediation and being justified as an artist, writer, or musician feels when they climb into their work and see themselves being delivered to place of success.

Being delivered to a place where we are focused on achieving a place of joy is the success I believe each of us inherently seek. And seeking that place we feel so wonderful within doesn’t mean we have to discount ourselves in our daily life. Right now the economy stinks, art sales are pretty much at zero, and a return on an investment portfolio isn’t obtainable. This means that if tomorrow we have to alter direction and get a job at something outside of art, music, or writing that we are no longer an artist, musician, or writer. On the contrary, our employment doesn’t dictate who we are, our employment doesn’t define our success, unless we allow it so. We can live a parallel life in that we work for money to exist, but the title of our employment doesn’t have to limit our opportunity to be ‘justified’.

Van Gogh’s sacrifice was his understanding that the success we seek is finding that place inside ourselves where we connect our creativity to our physical realm and experience the creation. The product of the experience is the justification of our purpose, which validates our arrival to place of importance and makes us feel so very worthwhile.