I came across an intriguing essay on symbolism. A few key thoughts to consider:
" Often we see that certain rituals or even transcendent symbols "drift" away from their original source, and get lost in terms of meaning. So for example, in church services, we no longer understand why we sit and stand at certain moments in a service. But God wants to help us re-attach these symbols to their meaning. This restorational process has to do with the creative life being re-integrated with the core identity of people and places.So that both individually and collectively, people and places can start to symbolize from who they truly are. Then we are able to trace the symbols back into core identity and celebrate this expression of a part of who God is.
God's art is integrative. His creativity is connected in Himself to His other aspects. For He is one. He also desires that we be one! For this reason, art is not separated from business or athletics in His Eyes as they are in the world, but are different dimensions of who He is. "
In our personal spiritualities, God wants to know us and meet us in our creative lives as He does every other aspect of our beings. If this area is stunted or split off, we miss out on another area where we can and should be meeting and knowing God.
We are not always patient for the emergence of God's symbols on the earth. We tend to rush ahead. But as artist, and as those concerned that His Kingdom come asap--we must be patient and labour as His images get reattached to the core identities of people, cities and nations. We must want to see them whole as He does, and once we do, to labour for that fuller expression!
There is something that I love in each one of those statements. The first one, with the idea of re-attachment, reminds me that we are not isolated in our understanding of meaning. There are things that come before us, we are influencing them today, and there are those who follow after us... do we serve to divide the coming generations from intrinsic meaning or do we serve to reconnect ourselves and those after us with the original meaning that the Creator intends?
In the second idea, the true self-acceptance is deeply rooted in our relationship with God. To become rightly related to Him is to find a self which we can fully accept. It is difficult sometimes to see that correction is not a denial of us, but a place where we can question whether what we have accumulated in our personality and its identifications is a true expression. IOW, who can we trust to tell us about ourselves? God (who created us), or the subjective voices around us who have their own filters and agendas by which they relate to us? We know ourselves by the "other" feedback, by comparing what is within with what is without. How often is our creative process shut down by faulty messages about who we are, what we can do, and the interpretation of our meaning and purpose?
And in that last thought, I relate to that consideration of how necessary it is to be patient... to get it right in how we see others. We think nothing of the disciplines of understanding perspective, of honing the motor skills in how our pencil connects with a page ( in whatever art form we choose), but we think that dealing with people is something inherent to us rather than a learned skill. Less than inherent- somehow "magical" and effortless. I don't know how long it would take for me to internalize that thought. I hope I will remember to take more time and patience to get to know what is really going on with people, and to promote clarity in rendering the images of truth.
It gave me some things to think about today.
