My father, a man of few words to me, once said our culture was bipolar. His colleague provided a wide-eyed surprised look and consenting chuckle. I remembering witnessing two well-respected health care professionals acknowledging the fallacy of their jobs trying to help folks stay fair-to-middling while bonding over the ridiculousness of where our culture lies.
My takeaway at that time, was that being up then down, trying one thing, then it’s opposite, is being in harmony with our culture. At least American culture, which stretches the outer edges pretty consistently. This has been our strength, not a problem. Unless the extremes manifest poorly like currently within our two party adversarial political system.1
Checking on the edges of our cultural mind is a worthy activity, even if exhausting at times. And an individual’s attempts to traverse our collective mind could be seen as a strength, especially they find ways to harmonize the extremes in practical ways.
I’m still working on understanding two political minds (and finally feel like I do), and finding ways to translate between the right and left to one another. So far, only creative endeavors that transfer meaning across multiple channels simultaneously seem to work at all. There simply aren’t words that can re-challenge a challenger to want to put down their fighting stick.
You have to go about it another way…
The creatives among us (the artists, musicians, philosophers, writers, and dreamers), who tell the tale of strong edges of human experience, can greatly expand the space we collectively occupy â and stretch our culture. It’s always been that from the outer reaches of possibility come our greatest ideas, and new thinking.
The question I’m wondering these days, is how we can conduct ourselves authentically, as a unified collective of humanity, while protecting our strongest qualities like survivalism, competition, exploration, and even challenge.
What I keep finding is that the things that help us do this, help us feel connected emotionally to ourselves and others. The stuff that creatives bring us, in short, makes us feel not so alone. For instance, hearing a great song can help us experience “the blues,” resonate with the energy then move through it in 3 minutes, all while hearing how we can make something beautiful from something difficult.
This is human experience inside culture, with the arts provide a fulfilling and connected way of experiencing ourselves here. True art can be challenging, but no more so than an opposing political party messing with your family’s livelihood or right to express yourself. Lonely people want to band together to “win,” and well-loved people know they are banded together already, but still need to be bold in their expression.
I’ve often wondered why many great artists flame out young, and as a young person, decided that I would not let that happen to me â that I would consistently choose to make things around what I experience and discover, even when difficult. It takes personal energy to push against external walls of societal mindsets and cultural constructs. And it takes even more analytic skill, self-reflection, honesty, and courage to rise to push again, especially when you’ve been swatted down or felt like you might be in that cultural category named “crazy.”
I also need to say, there have been times, I’ve needed to mindfully choose to live, and to create, and to write as a primary method of livelihood. Making things is my way of living. Not getting along inside a ‘fair to middling’ fever dream.
As a young woman, I enjoyed (and hated) the intense emotions of growing up and the farcical trials of life. I remembering deciding to own my own experience and witness how my choices played out, so I could keep choosing anew and try something different. I also decided to try some bolder things, even if I were to fail.
In short, I wanted to treat my life as a science experiment, but I was too moody to keep my records straight to be a real scientist.
For instance, as a teen I decided no alcohol or sex for me, but I delighted in pushing every boundary up to this very practical definition I had of both. For instance I still smoked pot, and still had loads of fun with my boyfriends. There was a physical and definitional line, clearly stated in words, but no energy of Prudence behind them. In fact the energy was one of experiment, articulation, and control, not exactly conviction or faith. There’s a huge difference. The difference is if you think for yourself, or adopt what someone else dictates to you of what you are supposed to do.
I was not opposed to doing what I was “supposed to” do, in fact, I tried to hide my personae inside a socially palatable respectability. Also, much to my surprise, many folks do not experience their words as having much meaning, or showing a direct a reflection of their inner life to the outside world. I could ONLY show mine with layered visual and auditory art. Often abstract work too.
Or maybe they all do, and I’m just blinded by the vast hypocrisy we humans all exhibit. Myself included.
As a little thought experiment, I’ve also been reflecting on the Beatles song, “Dear Prudence.” What would this song mean if you think of Prudence as a person, or you think of Prudence as an energy… you know, the Quality of Prudence?
No matter which way you experience the song, the story is Prudence does not come out to play very often. By her nature, Prudence the Quality avoids risks and probably does not play very often. Play leans into the fresh and new, includes tapping the unknown and taking risks, that’s what makes it fun. Prudence a Person, well, then it’s just a name, and matter of that particular person’s desire to take risks and play.
Wisdom is something different entirely than Prudence. And that’s what I’m seeking these days. Thinking through decisions and actions, attuning to personal boundaries, and giving an equal measure of consideration for others, seem a part of the route to Wisdom. But I’m not sure, I’ve spent a good portion of my life being “Prudent.”
As a creative person who feels better while expressing oneself than stretching the furthest reaches of my inner life, I have to wonder too, if non-expression (IE silence) is wisdom too.
Not sure I’m ready for that experiment – stretching mental polarities and trying to write about them is much too fun.
FOOTNOTES & SUB-SUBTEXT đ
- Our two party system was never before so divisive, instead it was made of individuals of common mind to run our nation as a union. In the last few generations, it appears the mentality of “winning” has overtaken the true purpose of serving in public office, yet, I think unity-with-wisdom-and-innovation mentality will prevail. We were made of strong stuff, this USA, and will return again. Or we won’t and our democratic experiment will bite the dust after only 250 years. That would be a shame. Acting like a winner, but without community-minded, inclusive understanding of who we ACTUALLY are as a nation (a melting pot full of innovators and survivalists), is getting kind of old. As is Trump. âŠī¸
