As a seminarian--as a student in general, really--I'm often asked to write long papers about issues that don't really stir me. For example, this evening and for the next few days I am writing about The Interior Castle, by St. Teresa of Avila and her role as a reformer of monasticism. Enthralling, no?
But get me started on a pet topic in art or theology or psychology or any of a dozen other subjects, and I feel like I could write for days and not say everything I think or feel about it. So when I was reading for a class a few weeks back and stumbled across this quote, my heart screamed Yes! like it does when I come up with or come across some small truth that resonates with me.
"No narration of a nascent image, whether in story, poem, or conceptual form, exhausts the content of that image."- James Fowler, Stages of Faith
Gah! I mean, who hasn't experienced that at some point? Some image, some thought wells up in you and suddenly you're boring your friends by talking about it for hours on end (or blogging about it). You are so excited to share it with the world, trying to bring it to reality or just trying to make someone else understand.
Sometimes you get lucky, and that's what you do for a living. I mean, Monet painted around 250 renditions of his water lilies. And you know what? I bet he could've painted 1,000 more.
Maybe this is just for arts people, but I don't think so. I think it just looks different to different people. Maybe for some people their "image" is an equation or a chemical formula. Maybe for some people it's of a united church or a peaceful Middle East or a thriving Africa. The point is, when you get to spend your whole life trying to flesh out that image, work isn't work anymore.
So what are your images?
But get me started on a pet topic in art or theology or psychology or any of a dozen other subjects, and I feel like I could write for days and not say everything I think or feel about it. So when I was reading for a class a few weeks back and stumbled across this quote, my heart screamed Yes! like it does when I come up with or come across some small truth that resonates with me.
"No narration of a nascent image, whether in story, poem, or conceptual form, exhausts the content of that image."- James Fowler, Stages of Faith
Gah! I mean, who hasn't experienced that at some point? Some image, some thought wells up in you and suddenly you're boring your friends by talking about it for hours on end (or blogging about it). You are so excited to share it with the world, trying to bring it to reality or just trying to make someone else understand.
Sometimes you get lucky, and that's what you do for a living. I mean, Monet painted around 250 renditions of his water lilies. And you know what? I bet he could've painted 1,000 more.
Maybe this is just for arts people, but I don't think so. I think it just looks different to different people. Maybe for some people their "image" is an equation or a chemical formula. Maybe for some people it's of a united church or a peaceful Middle East or a thriving Africa. The point is, when you get to spend your whole life trying to flesh out that image, work isn't work anymore.
So what are your images?
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