Twin Devils

I discovered the power of art when I was boy. The story goes that as an infant I curled up against the stereo speaker when Beethoven was playing.

Once I was old enough to walk upright, art become my religion. Novels, poems, movies, music, plays - all of these distilled life down to its essence, asking the audience, and myself, to only focus on what truly mattered, which, in almost all cases, was the supremacy of the human soul.

And so I would become an artist. I would become an artist first, because I wished to distill MY life down to its essence just as other artist had done for theirs; and second, because I wanted to give someone else the gift I felt I had been given by e. e. cummings, Tolkein, Beethoven and all the rest.

But then comes faith, and his noble second, courage. Without these, you cannot get where you wish to go. Why? Because once I was on my own, out of the shelter of childhood, then came the issue of money. And then also came the issue of approval, which I dubbed fame. These two devils arrive in the form of questions. What if I can't make any money distilling my life down to its essence? Or what if I make money, but I am not deemed "great?" Without both of these, how will my body and ego survive?

Such is the choice of every hero, or course, be they artist, politician, or lawyer. At some point, the question comes, "But how will I survive?" The "I" is always the body and the ego. How? But there are no certainties, and the so the answer will always be, "I don't know," and the twin devils are satisfied.

Fear knocked at the door; faith answered, and there was no one there. There is no other answer. Every artist, every hero, every soul, is faced with this question. What if ? Only faith gets you through. A better question to ask is, "What if Martin Luther King hadn't marched? What if the Beatles had stayed lovable and cute? What if Bob Dylan thought, 'I can't sing'? What if Hemmingway had thought, 'No one wants to read a book without a lot of adjectives'?"

You are Hemmingway. You are Martin Luther King. You are Bob Dylan, and Lennon, and McCartney. You are all of them, and the question will be asked of you. What will you answer?