Remember Mr. Rogers? Something he said came to my attention today and I ended up going looking for other stuff. I found the following and I like it very much:
There would be no art and there would be no science if human beings had no desire to create. And if we had everything we ever need or wanted, we would have no reason for creating anything. So, at the root of all art and all science there exists a gap - a gap between what the world is like and what the human creator wishes and hopes for it to be like. Our unique way of bridging the gap in each of our lives seems to me to be the essence of the reason for human creativity.
~ Fred Rogers
Between the idea
ReplyDeleteAnd the reality
Between the motion
And the act
Falls the Shadow
(T. S. Eliot)
O felix culpa? If human creativity worked perfectly it would destroy its own existence.
"O felix culpa?"Ah. Excellent question!
ReplyDeleteI think you have something there, Tom.
(And it's a wonderfully appropriate Eliot reference.)
desire's a loaded word isn't it? Chopra, I understand he's not well-respected by many, says desire is the path to God. Yet in Buddhist tradition letting go of desire is the path to God. I'm confused.
ReplyDeleteWell, "desire" is not perhaps the best translation, really. I've read Buddhist authors who, rather, translate that Noble Truth using the words "excessive desire" which puts a different spin on it, doesn't it? My own teacher perfered the expression "ego clinging". Sometimes "attachment to outcome" is used.
ReplyDeleteProbably what Chopra calls "desire" is what a lot of Buddhists would call "aspiration" --- which is considered to be a desirable (tee hee!) thing indeed!!!
This is wonderful.
ReplyDeleteMarilyn