Chapter 1: Why is the Secret of Creativity...Ambiguity? | The House of the Forest
Let me show, not tell, how wisdom, creativity, and truth are found in our uncertainty.
Hello everyone…here is a journey into my labyrinth and I hope this provides you with something to contemplate.
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This is the second entry to my Red Book.
This is a post using a new style of writing…
I call it dreamscape non-fiction.
Let me know what you think, enjoy!
“And I said, ‘That last thing is what you can’t get, Carlo. Nobody can get to that last thing. We keep living in hopes of catching it once and for all.”—Jack Kerouac
The Wisdom of Uncertainty…Thank You Nothingness.
I enter the home. All around me, I see green and decay. The house of the forest is old, creaky, and pulsing with life — like a heartbeat. I can feel it to my core before I even step inside. The forest has taken over the house, but it doesn’t matter; we walk together now; we are one with these walls of wood that grow from floor to ceiling, sharing space between two worlds: living and existence. The pulsing of the home makes the faint images dance on the wall as if they were alive, as though we are always walking into many worlds.
The pulsing of the home intensifies as I step towards its open center the pulsing turns into a grumbling howl, “the trees have gone mad”.
I move towards the center of the pulsing house to find a book laying on the floor; I bend over to pick it up, but before I could read the cover, the floor breaks in.
I find myself free-falling.
Darkness ensues, as the place under the floor appears as endless space, and it feels as though time is moving backward, taking with it all of history and culture until we arrive at a primitive state where everything — even language — begins to dissipate before our eyes and mind’s eye. But finally, we are left with a state of nothingness; a place where we are not allowed to exist without being pulled back out…away from this deep hole of darkness which is feared, accepted, and embraced.
And a thought came, isn’t there something comforting about the brokenness of our reflection upon a broken mirror?
So, we are born by the rituals of rituals, consumed by the symbols as we pull ourselves from this dark hole. The darkness is full of life’s uncertainties. We fall from nothingness, and then find ourselves welcomed back to the presence of life.
Is this the light?
We create a light for ourselves and move towards it. But during our movement towards that light, we climb our ladder to reach for that light, and we realize even our ladder is a narrative keeping us from falling back into the darkness of uncertainty.
So, we look within our surroundings for something to hold on to, keeping us from falling once again, but there’s nothing at all except the memories of the past. We play those memories in our minds over and over and over again, trying to find the lessons, meaning, and wisdom. We must rebuild our ladder and find our light!
But are we distracting ourselves from the uncertainty of the darkness?
“As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain; and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality.”—Albert Einstein
We look for wisdom in the midst of uncertainty. And in our search for wisdom, we must allow our creative exploration to emerge. Take these words you’re reading right now; it’s an attempt at a stream of consciousness on a particular subject, but it’s kept vague enough to allow for an artistic license on my part and the readers.
The confusing attempt of making it vague enough to allow the reader to explore their own creation, while being concise enough to keep a semblance of the words being grounded in reality. It’s an attempt at using creative prose to present both meaning and meaninglessness, simultaneously; thus, allowing the reader to use their own exploration, thoughts, and minds to find meaning within the phrasing.
And as I come back for a read of my own…a new meaning emerges.
So let’s begin.
There is a tension between the lover of wisdom and the desire for certainty. Wisdom without certainty can bring about chaos, as those who seek knowledge beyond logic will always face emotional uncertainty. And those who are certain of their own knowledge and wisdom rarely question their beliefs — they’ve already solidified them.
Their certainty persists.
Does mine?
The human mind distorts reality by providing you with an optimized perception for survival. Our mind creates distortions of reality by way of our own arrogance and ego, although it’s often beneficial, as they allow you to continue surviving for your continued experiences. This also creates, within us, an incessant need for moral (truth) reference points beyond ourselves, even though absolutes sacrifice nuance.
Now?
Everything has its opposite.
We live between good vs evil, yes or no, if and then, and one or zero; however, we find life in between those places. It’s in between those places where uncertainty is found. This is the space where creativity allows your mind to gain insight, in the brace of the unknown, and in between the binary.
Creativity is found in the unknown.
The true lover of wisdom knows that certainty is the death of meaning and that no knowledge can be absolute (even this arrogant proclamation of absolute). Wisdom teaches us to question our own understandings, as we must allow for a space between our own perceived binary.
The desire for certainty destroys creativity.
One cannot seek wisdom without first opening ourselves up to uncertainty. And can only come closer to the truth by allowing ourselves to come closer to the brink of unknowing, to contemplating the concept of nothingness…and then returning.
In between death and life, there is a dance; this ballet occurs when our dread to live, fear to die, fear of uncertainty…collide together at a single point — an uncertainty that transcends reason itself.
The space between two points is the abyss.
The desire for certainty, in order to escape this space and reduce it to a point where we can create meaning out of it; we lie to ourselves and say that we know something which we do not.
There’s an edge beyond which our mind cannot go…
It’s in that abyss where we find creativity.
Believe it. It is the only reality we know. And just like that…it becomes nothingness. No, no…that’s something!
I attempt to convince my mind.
But…in between nothing and something, creation occurs; inspiration strikes us like lightning and we become part of the dance between life and death. So, find your binary…
Dance, and then live.
“I can live with doubt and uncertainty and not knowing. I think it is much more interesting to live not knowing than to have an answer which might be wrong…in order to make progress, one must leave the door to the unknown ajar.”—Richard P Feynman
Okay…I’ll admit…in this next section I allow myself to get off my rocker a bit…
All of this has created a cycle where we call upon the unknown—the primordial creative expression from which all things emerged; myths, religion, symbols, and even science provide us with moral certainty through our place in the grand scheme of things within a creative expression.
In our need for certainty, we pursue truth; we crave it so badly that we create fantasy worlds to act as metaphor that then acts of a reflection of ourselves.
But do we desire to be the hero, savior, or the prophet?
Come to me for I hold the truth!
Blasphemy.
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