PRE-DETERMINED TEMPLATES
An
Impromptu Essay
Not Required
Reading
Unasked for Writing
Beware of the Power of
Words
By Izzy Ess of Messy, Exciting Chaos
The jigsaw is a template
and as such inhibits creativity because it is so pre-determined. Of course, for lots of folks, it is so
satisfying to spend, labouriously, lots of time assembling the completed
picture, already on the box. Underneath
what folks observe as orderly and predetermined is a chaos that excites and
comes together randomly to form an image or strong feelings or a concept never
seen before. Emotions are by definition
quite illogical and not as predetermining as logic of perfectionists, a
straight line sequence of events and facts that satisfy the unemotional
condition of perfectionism.
Poetry may have a
predetermined pattern of expression but the poet strives to break the rules to
emphasis the strength of feeling in his concepts, mostly strongly full of
feelings, not pre-determined thoughts that are contrived to be the truth. A poet often thinks in circles, not straight
lines. An aboriginal will tell a story
with the punch-line first and then contrive to work around the strong emotion
of his punch line to elucidate the strong emotions that were evoked. A westerner tends to tell a straight line
story with the punch-line at the end so that it seems that it is predetermined
by the joke or story. It often makes
perfectionists quite angry that an artist will not make his images like
photographs, instead of like impressionists and abstractions who try to represent
a feeling, not a fact.
Why are artists overjoyed
about Picasso or Van Gogh or Manet or Monet or Braque or Marc Chagall? It’s obvious that these great painters do
evoke emotions and chaotic underpinnings of the facts. How else can we explain why women with two eyes
on only one side of her head are sold so widely and displayed with grand exuberance? Of course, there is the marketing by salesmen
who are just motivated by the money they can get. And, of course, some artists are good market
people and they seem to sell, no matter what.
Picasso was an entrepreneur as well as a great artist. Van Gogh never sold a single painting, yet
now his works are the most expensive of them all. Vincent’s turmoil comes shining through each
work he’s done, including those churned out each day he painted. He was in touch with chaos and was able to
exemplify it, brilliantly. Tchaikovsky,
Chopin, Beethoven and the other great emotional composers were all bipolar,
brilliant and in trouble. Their
life-styles were exotic and quite unpredictable. In general, perfectionists can’t tolerate a
moody, unpredictable bipolar person. He
says and does things which do not fit with his idea of the way things really
should be, in his authoritative opinion of perfectionism in all things.
A schizophrenic or bipolar
child does frequently break up a family whose members are determined to adjust
their children’s attitudes to be mirrors of their own. Some haven’t an idea about how their striving
for an unemotional mind set is deadly for a child that has some contact with
the underlying chaos that is there for everyone. They feel that conquering their true emotions
will make them perfect robots, driven by internal or external pressures to fit
into a predetermined image of themselves and those they think are perfect,
too. Their love is quite conditional. It’s heard in homes throughout the
world. “I’ll love you if you do things
exactly like I do them and think exactly like we do. Otherwise you’ll make mommy or daddy angry or
sad, fearful or vengeful. “ Worse, they
may reject a bright and creative child for fear it will affect family members,
not unlike a fear of lepers who have contagion.
What’s a kid to do? Hardly can he
stand up to the parent and reveal the chaos that he feels, the love he feels
and how delighted he is with somewhat different things. Most kids want love, need love and hunger for
an answer to the chaos which is not forthcoming. Lucky are the kids whose parents understand
and nurture their experimenting with different ways to think and act. Most kids are taught that different thoughts
are evil and must be stamped upon. In my
opinion, chaos is as normal as order.
Making families operate smoothly, with laughter and enjoyment of each
other, takes a special parent, especially if the kids are born with special
talents for creating art and music, literature and philosophy. If a person likes a life-like unemotional
piece of art, then let him use a photograph, though he should be aware that
photography is trickier than just clicking a button. As the expression goes, cameras do, in fact,
lie at times, whether accidentally or on purpose. Be that as it may, a photograph is usually
what a perfectionist admires. Abstract
paintings are disturbing to him. They
induce the same fear that a creative child induces. They induce the same anger that a misbehaving
child induces.
Thank you for listening to
my random thoughts of what I feel about perfectionists, their thinking and
behaviour. If I’ve offended anyone, it
was probably purposeful but not pre-determined.
I’m 75 and approaching blissful senility. My stubbornness, a genetic trait, suggests I’ll
get even more emotional about the stifling effect on folks like myself, by
folks who are perfectionists. And, there
are more of them in my environment, than there are of chaos lovers like myself. Perhaps I should move to join a group of
aboriginals who love the land and its bountiful beauty, just the way it is.
Incidentally, if you think
that a piece of creative writing has more to do with spelling and syntax than
it has to do with content and emotion, then, you shouldn’t be reading this, because
there’s lots of chaos underneath it all.
Plus, the syntax and spelling is corrected automatically by my stifling
computer which doesn’t allow me to make up words or ramble on like I like
to. I still am able to override some
stuff. That’s my stubbornness talking. I do admit that I love the special fonts with
which I can play and the special and unexpected tricks it plays while I’m
trying to complete a particularly long sentence or paragraph or essay, like
this one. Essays are generally tougher
than fiction or poetry. I hope this one
tickles your fancy.
THE END
© izzy sommers, md
Welland, Canada
August 5, 2013
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