Luminalogue

The Art of Self-Expression

                    

    Every child is an artist.  The problem is how to remain an artist once [s]he grows up.         

~ Pablo Picasso

    May every disciple take care not to cling to words, as if they were a perfect expression of the meaning; because truth is not in the letters.

            ~ Lankavatara Sutra

    You are the artist, you are the raw material, you are the work of art and you are the reality behind the work of art...One experiences ecstasy when one discovers the creator in one, as oneself.

~ Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan

Throughout history, we humans have used art to express ourselves.  We create art not only to represent and beautify our world, but also as a means of understanding and sharing who we are in our world.  Through creative self-expression, we grow in self-awareness, generate insights, resolve problems, and enhance our overall well-being.

However, if you're like many adults, somewhere along the way you may have decided, perhaps without even realizing it, that art-making is not for grown-ups, or at least not for grown-ups like you.  As much as you may like art on the walls and (especially if you share your home with children) the refrigerator, it seems the art-making is best left to artists and children.  After all, when it comes to art, isn't patronage the appropriate role for productive members of society?

You know that you are one such adult if, when invited to draw, doodle, or otherwise engage in some creative activity, you find yourself feeling uncomfortable, perhaps even anxious or mildly panicked.  This discomfort is usually accompanied by thoughts that sound something like this, "This is a waste of time," "please tell me you're kidding," and often culminate in a final protest "But I can't draw." 

Yup, that's when you know that a whole lot of your brain is just withering away from the lack of intentional use.  However, thanks to neuroplasticity--our brains' ability to change its structure and functioning in response to experience--this condition(ing:) is easily treated.  The good news is that with just a little conscious creativity, you can become a smarter, happier, healthier human being.  Here are five good reasons why engaging in artistic self-expression may be just the thing for you.

Participant-centered Design: How to Design Events Worth Attending

Whenever I get asked to do a presentation, I always have mixed thoughts.  I’m grateful that someone values my perspective enough to invite me to share it, but I’m also concerned that people will expect me to do all the talking.  Most people who know me well will tell you that I consider myself to be less of a public speaker and more of a conversation-starter.  I enjoy presentations if they catalyze meaningful conversation and action, but I prefer more participant-centered events.

If you look up monologue in the dictionary, you will find the following definition: a long speech monopolizing conversation.  Dialogue, on the other hand refers to a conversation between two or more persons; an exchange of ideas and opinions.  There’s no denying that monological presentations can be useful for setting contexts, delivering content, and providing passive entertainment (assuming the speaker is entertaining), but they can also suck the life out of a group of otherwise engaging people more quickly than a leech at a blood-letting. 

Most of us have had the unfortunate experience of sitting through a well-intended, but counting-the-seconds-until-it’s-over, mind-numbing presentation—and when the folks attending to the “butts-in-seats,” haven’t been as attentive to the comfort of the butts-in-seats—even butt-numbing presentation.  Some of us have even had the unfortunate experience of delivering the well-intended, mind-numbing, butt-numbing presentation (so, so sorry). 

As one such person, I've learned a lot over the years (as I continue to learn) about how to design and facilitate interesting, engaging participant experiences.  I imagine much of what I have to say on the subject is nothing new.  However, I am still amazed at the number of well-intended, well-attended events that deliver a less-than-optimal participant experience than was possible with a little more skillful design and facilitation, so I offer what follows as a conversation-starter for anyone involved in designing and/or facilitating events large or small with full appreciation for just how challenging it can be to create an event that not only fulfills its purpose, but actually inspires, the majority of participants. 

Obviously, there are numerous aspects involved in producing a great event, and numerous kinds of events from social gatherings to fundraisers to workshops and conferences.  What most interests me for the purpose of this exploration is attempting to articulate practical, guiding principles that increase the probability that participants will have a great experience at any organized event, although my examples usually assume larger events.  When I speak of “participants,” I am most often referring to those whose primary role is to attend and participate in the event, although in the broadest sense, all who participate in an event as sponsors, speakers, facilitators, volunteers, etc. are also participants.

The number of “butts-in-seats,” though an important, if somewhat crudely stated, success measure, matters less to me than the quality of the participants’ experience.  In fact, I suspect that the more we attend to the participant experience as the most essential part of our design and facilitation, the more likely it is that they will attend our events. 

And so, without further ado, I invite you to pause and ponder…to enquire and share…  And of course, do make yourself comfortable... Here are a few thoughts about how to increase the likelihood that participants will have a great experience.

The Miniature Earth...

If there are only 100 people on Earth, how might we describe our world? 

Thanks to Michele Costa for sharing The Miniature Earth with me, a thought experiment and slideshow based on the work of the late Donella Meadows that places global issues in the context of a world populated by only 100 people. 

If there are only 100 people on the planet:

* 43 live without basic sanitation
* 18 live without an improved water source
* 6 people own 59% of the entire wealth of the community
* 13 are malnourished or hungry
* 14 can't read
* only 7 are educated at a secondary level
* only 12 have a computer
* only 3 have an internet connection
* the village spends more than US$1.12 trillion on military expenditures and only US$100 billion on development aid
* if you keep your food in a refrigerator, your clothes in a closet, if you have a bed to sleep in, and a roof over your head you are richer than 75% of the entire world population
* if you have a bank account you're one of the 30 wealthiest people in the world
* 18 struggle to live on US$1.00 per day or less
* 53 struggle to live on US$2.00 per day or less

Check it out...

Conspicuous Contentment

To live content with small means, to seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion, to be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy, not rich, to study hard, think quietly, talk gently, act frankly, to listen to stars and birds, to babes and sages, with open heart, to bear all cheerfully, do all bravely, await occasions, hurry never, in a word to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious, grow up through the common, this is to be my symphony
- William Ellery Channing

Nine requisites for contented living:
Health enough to make work a pleasure. Wealth enough to support your needs. Strength enough to battle with difficulties and overcome them. Grace enough to confess your sins and forsake them. Patience enough to toil until some good is accomplished. Charity enough to see some good in your neighbor. Love enough to move you to be useful and helpful to others. Faith enough to make real the things of God. Hope enough to remove all anxious fears concerning the future
- Goethe 

I like stuff as much as the next person, maybe more than some; less than many, but lately I've been wondering what it would be like to live in a culture of conspicuous contentment rather than conspicuous consumption...

At the heart of the average American discontent is an unquenchable desire for more--to have more, do more, be more... We want more money, more time, more meaning, more connection.  We want more of what matters—and of course, what matters is often in flux.  But the wanting—well, that seems to be constant.   

How Naked Are You Prepared to Be?

How naked are you prepared to be?  asks Dominic Miller in The Balls to Stand Naked (http://www.monday9am.tv/archive/play/29), an inspiring short film by Nic Askew.  In the film, world-class guitar player, Dominic, inquires into the meaning of life, offering a personal perspective on what happens when we arrive--when we achieve a certain level of success in the world--and muses about the power of our own nakedness--of truly being who we are... 

Remember Come As You Are parties where people were invited to come in whatever clothing they happened to be wearing at the time of the event?  A cultural novelty of bygone times, people were welcome to arrive in anything from business suits to birthday suits.  Although the events were often used as opportunities to dress in the wackiest clothes imaginable, the parties were an invitation for people to get together without having to worry about appearances, often stretching the bounds of social convention and proscribed self-conceptions.  The underlying concept was that people could come together with fewer pretenses, free to express themselves without the judgment present in everyday experience.

The Answers to our Prayers

Namaste... sanskrit word and Hindu greeting most literally translated as "I bow to you," meaning the divine within me recognizes the divine within you.

He drew a circle that shut me out--
Rebel, heretic, thing to flout.
But love and I had the wit to win.
We drew a circle that took him in.
                    Edwin Markham

About seven years ago, on my daily commute, I passed a woman from my neighborhood walking her dog.  As our paths crossed on the sidewalk, I smiled and said, "hello."  She glared at me and said nothing.  I figured that she was just having a bad day, and let it pass--until the next day, when the same thing happened.  I smiled and said hello.  She glared at me and said nothing. 

Shocked and more than a little miffed by her obvious lack of common courtesy, I carried that glare and the self-righteousness it inspired within me most of the day.  I mean, I didn't necessarily expect a response, but glaring at me for saying hello seemed downright rude. 

The next morning, having benefited from some quiet reflection and a good's night sleep, I thought that perhaps my greeting disturbed her morning solitude.  After all, I'm an introvert who can appreciate Sartre's oft-quoted maxim, "hell is other people at breakfast"--or "greeting me during my morning walk," as the case may be, so when we passed, I said nothing.  She glared at me.  Again.  I was shocked. 

Pyramid Principles

...At times the journey feels awkward or perilous: you're asking questions that everyone wishes would go away; you don't know how to put into words what you're searching for; you're wondering just how big an idiot you really are for leaving what felt sure and safe and comfortable...

Paul H. Ray, PH.D. and Sherry Ruth Anderson, PH.D., The Cultural Creatives

...It is safe to say that men [and women] have been seeking an answer to the riddle of the Great Pyramid for over 4000 years...

When I was a child, I was fascinated by the Great Pyramid. A testament to human ingenuity, the Great Pyramid is the only remaining structure of the Seven Wonders of the World. Believed to have been built in 2600 BC, it was originally encased in highly polished limestone that reflected sunlight, making the pyramid visible from vast distances. According to some calculations, the casing stones of the original pyramid would have reflected light like giant mirrors, so powerful that it would be visible from the moon.

Questions Worth Asking... Abridged...

"Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves like locked rooms or books written in a foreign tongue. The point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually without noticing it, live your way some distant day in to the answers."

R.M. Rilke

The most powerful response to questions worth asking is often not answers, but questions. Questions worth asking cause us to question--who we are, what we're doing, where we're going. They help us find ourselves despite ourselves. They are the messengers of our discontents, and the gatekeepers of our dreams. Indeed, questions worth asking are worth asking precisely because they have the power to change our lives.

Questions worth asking are the questions we live. How did I get here? Where am I going? Is this all? Will I ever be happy? How can I make a difference? Most often, they are the undercurrents of our reflections pulling our lives in different directions while we're busy skimming the surface. We notice them in fleeting moments between waking and fully opening our eyes, standing in line and paying the cashier, the daily commute and the eight am meeting.

Like heartbeats or breathing, we are often unaware of the questions we are living until something happens to remind us. Frequently, we neglect the questions worth asking until we are in crisis. Then, we have no choice but to live the questions now. Crises plunge us beneath the surface and force us to choose between drowning in our own misery and changing the way we live. In the gaping hole between "before" and "after" when some life happening recalls life's meaning, we are reminded that there are questions worth asking.

Questions Worth Asking...

My dear, is it true that your mind
Is sometimes like a battering
Ram
Running all through the city
Shouting so madly inside and out
About the ten thousand things
That do not matter?

Hafiz, Out of the Mouths of a Thousand Birds

Deep in American life lies a dormant soul, almost obliterated by politicians and media that consider it too lowly and weak for serious attention.
Thomas Moore

In my personal and professional development work, I spend a lot of time with questions. My questions. Client questions. Unasked and unanswered questions. Spiritual "meaning of life" questions. Transactional "get the job done" questions. Relational "getting to know you" questions. Easy questions. Hard questions. Rhetorical questions. In the course of all this questioning, I have noticed that the most powerful questions people ask are those that invoke reflection about what they value. I call these questions valuable questions.

Valuable questions are worth asking. They are questions of value that enable us to deepen who and how we are in the world--to grow, to change, to transform ourselves and others. They help us determine what really matters to us and what to do about it. How can I be a better person? What do I want to do with my life? How can I make money and make a difference in the world? How can I have meaningful relationships with people important to me? Valuable questions invoke reflection on how we value ourselves, our relationships, life conditions, and life pursuits.

They are also overwhelming and hard to answer because they take time. Even worse, valuable questions take personal time, and we are busy. We are a nation of people in a hurry, a culture addicted to well-marketed speed. This is not a novel observation. We all know it. Full-speed, speed to market. Fast food, fast cars, fast pace. Quick fixes. Rush hour, rush job, feel the rush. Instant coffee, instant gratification. We don't even read anymore; we scan, skim and surf our way through life.

Ours is a culture of pay per view relationships and substitute experiences, a culture that promotes spending more time with television "Friends" than with friends who really care. Most of us experience fifty to one hundred advertisements by nine in the morning. The entire world is at our fingertips--broadcast into our living rooms, our cars, our offices. Television, radio, billboards, snail mail, email, chat rooms, discussion boards, telemarketing. Even the spiritual has become commercial as corporations compete to sell us souls.

Reaction is better than inaction--and reflection, particularly self-reflection, is reserved for the self-absorbed or people with nothing better to do. Time out is a behavior modification technique for children and time off is regarded with suspicion. Vacations are prescriptions for preventing nervous breakdowns. We barely have time to sleep, let alone time to dream.

We simply don't have time for questions, valuable or otherwise. We want answers--and we want them fast. What am I going to wear today? Are we on schedule? Why am I doing this job anyway? Where did I put the car keys? Am I a good parent? How much is it going to cost? How am I going to make this payment? Why am I so worried? When will it be finished? Is it my turn to drive the kids? When am I going to get to the grocery store? What am I having for dinner? What's on TV tonight? Where's the remote control? When was the last time we had sex? How much sleep do I really need anyway? Is this what I really want? On any given day, there are so many questions competing for our attention, is it any wonder that we tend to neglect the most valuable for the least time-consuming?

Our personal time is in short supply and high demand. Most of us, of necessity, use our personal time to go to the dentist, pick up the dry-cleaning, and buy the groceries. We use personal time to socialize with friends, connect with partners and read to the kids. If we're lucky, we may have time leftover to get to the gym. In our culture, personal time is any time we spend outside of work, however impersonal, taking care of the rest of our lives, taking care of the people in our lives and--oh yes, taking care of ourselves. That too--and more often than not--that last. After all, personal time for truly personal use should be reserved for crises.

Basically, if we have any personal time at all, we should be shopping, cooking, cleaning, and socializing. We should be doing something--certainly not sitting around by ourselves inquiring about the meaning of life. We have Oprah for that--just turn on the television. Watch a meaningful life.

However, if we want to live meaningful lives, we have to occasionally turn off the television, the cell-phone and the computer. Leave the laundry for another day. Decline the invitation and order in. Whatever it takes, we have to take the time to ask ourselves the questions worth asking--value ourselves enough to ask the valuable questions. We have to get personal with our personal time and inquire into our own experience about what really matters.

We must breathe, reflect, be. Greet the moment with a deep sigh and a full heart. Now, that would be doing something.