This writing thing can be challenging for those that want to write. Taking what is going through the mind and putting names to those images and ideas, to polish them into what we call 'sense' so others that read them and understand them... communicating in words, like paint bringing a picture onto a blank canvas, we sit with the proverbial pen in hand before a blank page and write.
Today's pen has become the keyboard - qwerty-style, we finger each key substituting the scroll of the pen that has been taught for hundreds of years to hasten our writings, no matter the subject. Each letter perfectly formed in universal uniformity, there is no telling who wrote what. We take it as a matter of trust that the words we see are written by the name at the end of the writing. Even the signature is gone... that unique sign that says it is "I" that wrote what you've just read.
We've given this cyber-write different fonts, different colors, different ways to express ourselves, but that original handwriting that was so unique to each one of us has pretty much faded into the past.
When Gutenberg invented what we know as the printing press back in the 1450's, it made the written word more accessible for others to read. What I'm talking about is the common, personal writing between small numbers of people, i.e., letter writing, love letters, notes to friends... these are rapidly being replaced through instant messaging, blackberries, cell phone technology... the future of writing, where all symbols of writing are uniform and no longer unique within themselves.
<center>Handwritten letter dated February 1860</center>
Penmanship was a name given to the art handwriting. This was not just the subject matter but the 'delivery' of the author's pen style. Each letter, each word, uniquely written. There was no question as to who wrote this letter... the receiver knew that style as well as they knew the person.
I used this 1860 letter as an example to show that writing is old, and through the years 'penmanship' became an art in itself. We can see that in the U.S. Constitution - the words themselves were written by the hand of Thomas Jefferson.
What do we have now? You cannot tell if what you are reading now, this Sunday Stream, was written by Cecil or Johnny Trutrot... there is no 'word signature'... no uniqueness to the actual letters that make up this Stream. We get this sameness in our junk mail supposedly signed by the CEO of Company X or Y. We assume it's true... why not? Why question who the author of anything we read is the actual author or not?
Have you ever seen the penmanship of the younger folks? Penmanship was obviously tossed out the window in schools. It is an antiquated art form. Why mess around with style of writing when you have a 'qwerty' in front of you? The future is uniformity.
A further example of our sameness is evident in the art world. Gallery owners have said that the purchasers of art works, those individually created pieces of painted canvases, are not being purchased by people under 40. They do not purchase anything that is unique and individual. They prefer to buy 'one-of-multiples' (posters, CD's, DVD's, video games... anything that is 'non-unique' over 'one-of-a-kind.') Even the fashion industry may promote unique, one-of-a-kind dress on the runways, these same dresses are being hacked out in the hundreds, if not thousands, at far cheaper prices for the masses.
Originality is dying if not dead. It is apparent everywhere we look . Those that may appear to embrace the original do so in hopes of turning their friends on to the same thing so they will not stand out alone in their choice(s). If their friends don't like what they have bought or enjoy, the greater the chance of their originality being swept under the carpet.
Originality has always been chance taking. This is not new. What is new is how originality has less and less chance of survival. Arts in its broadest sense wants to be acceptable to wide audiences... sell to the millions, worldwide, the more the better, This erases any sense of originality. It is your signature that is not important. What is important is fitting in... fitting in all all levels. From our clothing, our music, our character, our smell, our hairdo, our food and drink, our beliefs, religions, philosophies, our writing, our every-thing has got to somehow fit in with the most to make us more secure with ourselves.
We are losing, not only our originality, but our authenticity. We no longer want to be ourselves, but images of others... the more 'spitting the image' the better for our well being. We don't want to chance losing our 'make belief life' over our own originality. That is too much to chance. Just imagine - being our Self!!! Why we just know that nobody else could relate to that! Afterall, just who do you think 'you' are to be your self???
It's a criminal act of the highest order to turn against our own being in favor of following the others just to feel a false sense of comfort, which we see as 'belonging.' The only authentic belonging any of us have is our own Being, our own originality, our own authenticity. Every rosebush has its own form, just as every rose that flowers upon the same bush has its own signature, every snowflake has its own configuration. Nature has given all life its own uniqueness, ourselves included. Do not encourage sameness but find and celebrate your authenticity... it is all any of us can truly call our own.
Make your "Thanksgiving" a Thank you! for what Nature has given you - your own precious originality. We are not drops of water in the same sea but unique lifeforms swimming in the common sea.
Cecil
20 November 2005
<center>(((dream on, Marushka, within your sleep)))
your figure describes joy embraced
by pillows carelessly tossed in bliss,
the twisted sheets you lay upon
have shaded your nakedness...
we've surrendered to each other
given all that we have known
only to return again and again
to regain that which we have sown.
have I not untied your mysteries
one-thousand illusions or more,
each discovery bringing us closer
to the love of our opened door...
we pant and we rant
but yet we can't dispel
the fire the burns within
(why do they call it Hell?)
***
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