The Value of Writing

June 4, 2009

If a person were offered a choice between a rare sort flower or a poem about the flower, she would be a fool to choose the poem. Reality is always greater than language--greater in scope and greater in richness. Reality is the well-spring of all poetry, and as such, it is more valuable.

All communication, when the subject of it is unfamiliar, is an impediment. Confusion is a consequence of lack of experience with the relevant reality. Poetry when referencing a reality unknown to the reader, is impotent. It cannot engender the flights of thought and feeling poets are want to disseminate through their creations. Confusion gives way to frustration, and the reader is thereby repelled from that which he ought to be attracted. Vacancy stands in the way of beauty.

Reality, however, from certain angles can be a veil. It can be a stumbling block for what is important. Intertwined with it is that for which it is valued for. When distilled from physicality, they are known to us as ideas. If one were to dwell only with the flower, eventually it would become boring. Increased duration of time can make the new the familiar and the familiar the stale. Why is this? The attention on the flower, when mixed with the sloth of the mind, gives rise to a yawn. The red of its petals, repeatedly sensed, becomes boring. Why? The physical when sensed by itself admits of diminishing returns. Event the heights of erotic sensation become tedious and painful when the stimulation has been extended beyond its proper scope. Feedback from one's body when interacting with an object eventually becomes a barrier to interaction. A little exposure to the sun is energizing; too much, is painful.

The greatest thing to possess would be a flower and a poem about it, for the two compliment and enrich each other. We can only love what is known and communication (here, the artistic creation) is a means of increasing knowledge. To pass one's attention from the beauty of the flower to the beauty of the poem and back again: the process is endless. The two reciprocally adorn one another with accoutrement. Repetition enlivens rather than sickens.

The most reality is not just being, it is the union of being and being-known. The greatness of Christianity is its premise that Being and the Word are reciprocally ennobling.