Morning thoughts about Vince & Theresa and the debate....

"For me, what ultimately resolves the terror inherent in sublimation for many artists is their understanding of their place in the Creator`s plan." Deabvt, better known as V

This is really strong stuff. Ideas to mull over and concepts that haunt a woman when she is trying to work on a Performa and calculate payroll...Especially since, in her heart, she is an Artist.

Vince replied, in an e-mail, about an old poem he wrote that was raw and private. To honor his privacy, since I remember the poem completely, I won't go into the details but lets just say it was RAW with impact and in my opinion that alone made the poem superb. I digress. I was going to respond to his e-mail with one of my own but then thought I'd like to share these thoughts publicly to see what others might think...

You know, open myself up to more critiquing because it also opens my mind up to new ways of seeing and I am certain, to new books I shall have to own and read. LOL

So:

Dear V,

I often think you have robbed yourself by removing the poem. Raw emotion though can be hard to display in such a public fashion; however, I also think that it is from true emotion that we do our most sincere work, our best writing. The poem you wrote to replace it with is also very good and deals with the same issue with less pain for both the reader and the writer...

Now, I am afraid that I don't remember who Boswell and Johnson are so if you would refresh my memory I'd be glad to choose. (I just hope you aren't talking about Johnson from "Johnson & Johnson" LOL)....You have always reminded me of a close friend and someone I could count on. Wise counsel, so to speak but long before I ever knew what you did for a living. I knew who your soul was first Vince, I work that way. I am more interested in WHO a person is than what they do, because WHAT they do is immaterial in the long run of eternity. When we are done all we take is the essence of character, God won't care what we did but if we did it to the best of our ability and to His glory.

The removal of glorifying self is where most people decide that Faith, any faith is not for them. Faith over Self is, in my mind, almost on the same level as Good over Evil, if not the same thing. Not to say or even imply that I think of Self as evil, not even slightly, but to say that Self has the propensity for Evil whereas true Faith in a Deity outside of Self removes the Evil. (Satan Worshipping though could be used as an argument against this line of thinking. So, I must say I am referring to a Deity that is perceived as good and pure.) Some selfishness is good but not all selfishness is right. Therein lies the crux of the issue...How to balance it?

There is certainly more thinking to be done on this issue...as there has been for thousands of years.