That Was Good?

“Being good is not the point.”

Beg pardon.

“You don’t need to go into this under the assumption that it must be considered good by those who view.” 

I don’t quite get what you are saying. 

“The important thing is to simply to do it. If every artist, writer, musician, actor, athlete or ambassador waited until the exterior conditions become perfect, that their practice, research and preparation was one hundred percent complete, or that all other affairs reside in balanced harmony with the time and place, no one would ever produce anything.” 

Oh, that growth thing again. I see what you are doing. 

“You say you do - but do you?”

OK, let me toss a dart in summary. The crucial element of our creative verbiage, the action of doing, is not so much to create quality as it is to stimulate the continuation of the process. Because every time we boldly move in the direction of challenge, honoring our awareness of the sacred, magical and mystical, we take another baby-step towards the light. We must fail in order to learn. Mistakes are essential and errors necessary. The important part is in the effort. In the doing. Sitting down at the word processor, placing the blank stretched canvas on the easel, tuning the guitar, cutting the glass, putting on your cycling kit with presence and anticipation, saying thank you, being kind, forgiving. 

“Great start.”

Setbacks then, are anything but. They are stepping-stones. Defeat is temporary, yet winning is not the goal either. It is the intent, our willing to put forth sincere effort and practice our craft relentlessly, seeing that practice as the goal, not what we do with it, that makes it a true victory. Once we buy that emotions are unnecessary, that the energy that creates problems cannot be the same energy as the correction of those problems, we are left holding the bag of wisdom suggesting that we must always, simply and without attachment to the outcome, do what must be done. 

“I think you may have it in your cross-hairs, chief.’

Oh course the real challenge becomes how do we know what the what is? With courage, experience and love are the top three default values. If ‘do what must be done’ is the resulting render of metaphysics then ‘do unto others’ is its secular equivalent. Hate cannot be erased by the hatred of hate. Only love, the yang vibrational opposite it, can wipe the slate clean. It is like me kicking another dog because someone kicked my dog. All we end up with is a village of angry dogs and townsfolk with bandaged shins. 

“Ouch.”

Totally. So do. Just do. Start, begin, take the first step. Be brave. Be fearless and willing to sacrifice to extend the art of your soul. Experience all you can, travel, listen, learn. Add to the cache of your character every day. Love your brother. Be grateful for the glorious sunrise and forgive it for being equally responsible for the darkness of night. 

“Very poetic.”

That was good?