Yesterday I took my paintings and some of my photography to a street event in NE Portland. I sat in the 90 degree+ heat reading for hours, studying, yet few people stopped. At one point a news reporter and his cameraman came into the parking lot, where I was set up, to interview some of the artists. He spoke to the person's to my left and too my right, but didn't acknowledge me. I played with ideas about why this was so.....was it that the artists were younger than me; perhaps more attractive than this middle-aged matron in denim with the wide brimmed cowboy hat? As I stood there and penned Alberta Art Walk haiku, without internalizing a real offense, I was most comfortable with the conclusion that my anti-war and feminist work was too "overwhelmingly profound"....(she chuckles to herself). Yet so was it true that the majority of observers were attracted to the t-shirts with Michael Jackson and the 5"x8" ink prints of fish and parrots. I decided also that I know that I create from my heart, inspired by my Muse and my conscience, not for mass consumption. It delights me to create it and gaze upon it.....for it reminds me of what I tell those of whom say, "I cannot draw," or "I cannot write" or worst of all, "I'm not creative."
"You are made in the image of The Creator, so you can be no less than creative." As such, it is a spiritual experience to be creative and should bring shear delight to the creator, (I have no doubt) to The Creator...
What these partons of the arts that cruised by did not hesitate to do was take the free things I offered. I offered my postcards, which usually sell or 50ยข to $1.00, and the "Wisdom de jour" (slips of cardstock on which I had printed quotes) from a wooden box painted gold. Free is a very good price.....and so I learned that people will accept wisdom if they think they are getting a bargain more readily than if it is shoved in their face...that they embrace truth more readily if they perceive it as their own rather than that of someone else.
That sense of ownership of the truth is at the heart of counseling. And why it is more productive and loving to lead others into their own truth than to assume your's is the apex and absolute.
