The art of everything is the art of life

To thine own self be true

I enjoy artistic expression, and to me, everything in life is an artistic expression of self. As the artist, I try this, try that, and attempt to put together a life that is "just right" for expressing who I am. Not to express it to anyone or for any purpose, but expression for its own sake. ART.

I can't express what I don't know, and can't express myself if I don't know myself. A friend once suggested these words to live by: "To thine own self be true." It is actually a quote from Shakespeare's Hamlet, but in this case it was just personal advice. I always thought it was excellent advice. On closer inspection it can be interpreted in a number of different ways, but the interpretation I like is simply, "don't lie to yourself." It fits well with the subsequent line in the play which basically says, "for then you can't lie to anyone." Be a genuine person to yourself, and the habit will carry into your dealings with others.

This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.

Finding out who you are

First, though, how do you discover who you are, even to yourself? You have to shut out the noise.

Our society and culture spend a lot of effort and money trying to convince each of us how we should or should not be, and the end result they seek is usually much more beneficial to those doing the convincing than it is to us as individuals. The question for an individual is, "in the absence of cultural pressures and societal coercion, who am I?" The answer to that question is something valuable. Its value is immediately apparent upon its discovery. The value of protecting it from erosion, dissipation, and corruption is equally apparent. The attempt to find oneself and take a stance to protect oneself from non-genuine influence is, in the terminology of the 1970's, the quest to be "centered".

In the attempt to be centered, I have shut out a lot of noise, shunned distractions and societal pressures, and repudiated whatever "unquestionable" values turned out to be dogma or indoctrination. Shutting out noise basically means being alone. The discovery that many of our most popular societal values and pastimes are not worth much tends to lead in the same direction, so I spend a lot of time alone, and prefer it that way.

Expression

I enjoy music. In high school and in college, my real love was trying to play electric blues guitar and improvisational piano. The aim of improvising, in both of those, is to HAVE solid and interesting musical ideas and then to be able to express them fluently without technical hindrance. The aim of the art is expression of your musical self.

I enjoy thinking, and spend a great deal of time doing that. Thought is an art, and a very satisfying one. I like writing, too. Most of my writing goes to people as letters or winds up in speeches or essays.

Conversation is an art that can be done well if both parties to it are sufficiently interesting, at least to each other.

I enjoy public speaking, yet another expressive art that can be done well.

I like the art of debate, the informal exchange of opposing ideas, not formal debate. For years I listened to talk radio, where I heard some good arguments and ideas well presented. Talk radio used to be different from what it is now. I enjoy hearing opinions I disagree with if they're well thought out and presented.

How to go your own way: get kicked out of the other way

Many years ago while putting my psychology degree to use by working as a secretary, I was charged with the task of shopping for an office computer. This was back in the days of Apple II's and TRS-80s, and microcomputers in business were rare. I researched carefully, determined the very best one (not the one you would have expected, as you would expect), and then the boss decided not to buy it, or any computer.

So, for $2500, almost everything I had, I bought it myself, a Heathkit H-89 (CP/M), and built it at home. I started learning programming and wrote programs to do our office work, especially the billing. Three months later, I was amicably laid off from the secretary job, and started my own computer services business, even keeping the business of my former boss. For the next 8 years I did computerized billing, occasional consulting and instruction, and spent all the rest of my time buried in computer manuals learning everything I could. I worked part time for Heathkit as a computer repair technician, which I learned on the job from scratch.

With these successes, I began learning something important: I had been for years a failure at school, but I was clearly not a failure at learning. I wasn't doing very well at fitting into society's ideas of what kind of stable, planned life a person should fall into, but when I set my own course and pursued the things that interested me, as they interested me, I was content, always alive, and never bored. What I discovered was that life is art, and good art is satisfying.

The art of life is the art of every thing in it

Even activities as lowly as installing attic insulation or planning a campaign against an army of invading ants, unusual topics to be dealt with at another time, are worthy of care and worthy of an artistic attitude. The end result of either is an expression of yourself, if in an unusual form. They are works of art in small things.

Looking at everything as art, as expression for its own sake, gives even small things meaning. Small pieces of art in small areas of life can merge into a larger artwork that is a satisfying life. Everything you do is an expression of your self.

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