An Artist's Way

AN ARTIST"S JOURNEY

Another young artist, Aaron Trotter, told his story at Enterbeing last Wednesday. Once again the story involved traveling to other countries, drawing pictures, writing a journal or poetry, and taking photographs--just as Verdarluz, several weeks ago. In fact some of the countries visited were the same!

Once again I was struck by how driven both these young men are externally to travel and see the world, but also inwardly as they explore their own inner beings. It's as if the outer journey catapults the soul into realms of reflection and awareness beyond the reach of those who stay at home. And certainly I am aware in my own life how living in Germany and traveling to Israel, El Salvador and most recently Mexico, has thrusted my soul into places I would never have explored.

As I reflect on the connection between one's outer experiences and inner journey I am struck by several things. One, not everyone makes a connection. For some the signal sent from the world to the soul is weak or their receiver is not tuned toward receiving the signal. Perhaps it takes a little more silence and space around our experiences for them to bring their fuller impact.

Two, the power of distant lands and cultures to transform is palpable. Mother Teresa, Albanian by birth, went to India. Bede Griffiths, a Benedictine spiritual writer, spent most of his life in India and wrote passionately about the connections of his Christian understandings and the Hindu ways of life he encountered. He would still have been a Benedictine had he never gone to India, but having lived in India made him a very different Benedictine! Thomas Merton, the Trappist spiritual writer, also benefited from travel though he desired more and more the solitude of the hermitage as he matured. Dietrich Bonhoeffer traveled to America and was moved by African American music and preaching. Others, however, immersed themselves so much in their own context that they were moved inwardly without benefit of physical travel. Jesus never left Palestine (except as a child to Egypt), but Jesus lived between cultures, in Galilee, a crossroads between the Roman and the Jewish and the Samaritan worlds, a place called Galilee of the Nations because of its multicultural dimensions. Between the wilderness and Jerusalem Jesus found spiritual energy and understanding to critique both the Roman and Jewish ways of living in his time.

I wonder how Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement would have played out had he not visited Gandhi. But I also wonder if travel is the only way to spiritual insight? Is it possible to read about it--certainly, though the real experience, the sweat and dirt of each place is so much more powerful, though a good writer can make you feel the dirt and smell the sweat! I'm sure many great spiritual searchers stayed at home.

Could it be that our stories when we tell them are a way of traveling and connecting what is in our experience with our souls? Could it be that the stories are means of spiritual travel and that we can accompany one another in our spiritual journeys? Could it be that we can enter being through many portals and in many ways discover the core truths and values which are already given but need to be uncovered, sometimes by travel to distant lands and sometimes by looking more closely at what's close to home?

P Moe
August 8, 2005