“If you hear a voice within you say “you cannot paint,” then by all means paint and that voice will be silenced.” –Vincent Van Gogh
Ah, that was a push in the direction I needed. I’ve been saying for so long that I’m stalled in my writing, but guess what? I’m not writing! Maybe that’s why I’m so stalled. Gee, ya think?
I suffer a very common insecurity that writers often experience: I sit around and say “I can’t write.” Followed by those self-defeating thoughts like “Who am I kidding? Who’s going to want to read what I have to say?” and “I’m not good enough” and “I can’t compare to and will never be as good as (insert author name here).” It’s a vicious cycle and one that I need to get out of already.
So if we follow the logic here in this quote, whatever we say we can’t do, just start doing it and we’ll be proven wrong. I like it. I think I’ll take a page from Van Gogh’s book and just start writing dammit and silence that voice inside me once and for all!
What about you? What is it that you continue to say you are incapable of doing? What would happen if you just started doing it? Does this quote spark something in you?
Vincent Van Gogh, The Starry Night (courtesy of Pixabay)
Charles Allen Gilbert completed the classic black & white optical illusion in 1892. It can be seen as a pretty girl admiring her reflection in a mirror, or as an ominous skull in the background. The tableau is exquisite and the message is clear.
Illusion: the image created by imagination and having no objective reality. Things look different than they really are. Illusion is something that deceives by producing a false or misleading impression of reality, a false impression.
Do you get caught up in the constant drive to achieve some ideal and seemingly unattainable version of yourself and your life? I do. Or I should say I used to. I don’t so much anymore because after 50 years it’s finally sinking in that so much of what I see is illusion.
I see model-thin women, making self-deluding statements with their latest must-have fashions, and for years I’ve been insanely jealous but now I know that what lies beneath the veneer of confident smiles is a woman who is just as unsatisfied with her body as I am with mine.
Every day I see façades of happy couples but I know that behind the façade is a pair of individuals who are essentially miserable being married.
I see those who have so much money they couldn’t possibly spend it all in a lifetime, yet they hold on to it so tightly as if that money defines their identity and is inextricably tied to their core being. I can’t help but yearn to have that kind of money and I tell myself, with me, it would be different; I wouldn’t fall victim to its spell. But is that the truth?
I look to all the mansions and expansive homes with indulgent envy but I’m pretty sure now that the people inside are just as fucked up as the rest of us.
TS Eliot said “Humankind cannot handle very much reality.” I’d say that’s probably not far from the truth. We all seem to live in a land of illusion and for the most part, we seem to be pretty okay with it…maybe because we don’t even realize it.
So, is reality overrated? What do you think? Is illusion a preferred state?
Welcome to the grand illusion Come on in and see what’s happening Pay the price, get your tickets for the show The stage is set, the band starts playing Suddenly your heart is pounding You’re wishing secretly you were a star
But don’t be fooled by the radio The TV or the magazines They’ll show you photographs of how your life should be But they’re just someone else’s fantasies So if you think your life is complete confusion ‘Cause you never win the game Just remember that it’s a grand illusion And deep inside we’re all the same We’re all the same
So if you think your life is complete confusion Because your neighbor’s got it made Just remember that it’s a grand illusion And deep inside we’re all the same
America spells competition Join us in our blind ambition Get yourself a brand new motorcar Someday soon we’ll stop to ponder What on earth’s this spell we’re under We made the grade and still we wonder Who the hell we are
Lyrics to “The Grand Illusion” by Styx, the title track of their 1977 Grand Illusion album
We had a rare treat the other night: sleet. In Austin, any type of winter storm activity is a welcome diversion. It left some beautiful art in it’s wake. These are pictures of a frozen dog bed on my deck, covered in sleet. How the sleet settled into the folds of the bed created a striking abstract.
