The Art of Living

[Art Project - V]

Life is a canvas. I don’t mean a canvas on which we empowered, autonomous folks can color whatever we want.

Life is not a blank canvas. Rather, it’s a canvas that has Jackson Pollock paint already on it. The art of living is the long journey of making sense of the "colorful swirls" that we’ve been given. And that journey has at least one goal: self-knowledge or self-understanding.

Why?

Because a prerequisite to understanding others—making sense of the sense they make to themselves, without judgement—is understanding oneself.

Another way to say it is this: empathy of the other requires plumbing our own depths, at least enough to give ourselves grace.

The art of living is journey toward empathy.

People like us that are unwilling to continue with the way things are set this as one of our goals. Not for profit. Or attention. Or advancement. But to live a more beautiful life—one marked by self-understanding and empathy and grace.