Holy Moses

Three thousand years on, and nothing has changed.  The stories relate how the Ancient Egyptians feared and hated the Habiru, the Hebrews ('wandering ones') united  by a culture and language - but otherwise so similar to themselves that an imposter prince was indistinguishable from one of their own.  The immigration issue was one of the big topics in the tripartite election debate. We still distrust any group of people which we perceive as being different from ourselves.  And now the old tribal allegiances within our land are being re-ignited as the parties squabble over leadership roles.  Why can't the boys share their toys and take a consensus view for a change? Sharing responsibility for necessary but unpopular fiscal measures would have the added advantage that all the parties could blame each other for the nasty medicine. Just like Moses was able to point out that the discomforts of the Exodus were only a temporary side-effect of Yahweh's plan for his chosen people.  What do you think?

Authonomy Live!

Yesterday I uploaded sample work from 'Life Script' on the publishing website Authonomy.  I got up very early to do this, and then had a cup of coffee whilst watching dawn break over the city skyline. When I came back ot my computer at 7am, someone had already 'backed' my book! 
Making your work public feels so vulnerable: open to comments and criticism, hopefully people will like it but what if they don't?!?  It's hard to choose the moment, that old problem of procrastination masquerading as perfectionism.  But my book is climbing steadily up the ratings, other writers have sent messages saying they like it, and there is a wonderful feeling of camaraderie and support.  The internet has such potential for publicity and networking, making it possible to share interests that would have been sidelined before.  Do sign on if you haven't already - see website details in blog title - and register you support! 

Odysseus

Odysseus is one of the great heroes of our time. OK, so he lived around 3,000 years ago on a small rocky island west of Greece; but his story is still one of the best around. Ody wasn't much of a hero to look at: short, bandy-legged, squash-nosed and with a head of red hair that marked him out for trouble. When he set off home after the fall of Troy, he hadn't actually done anything wrong - the murder and pillaging wasn't his fault, though he opened the gate to the looters: his guilt lay in his complicity. But he took nearly ten years more to get home. Even when he was within sight of Ithaca, he fell asleep and let the boat blow off course: bit of a Freudian slip, that. So Ody visited a couple of nymphs, though they didn't mean anything to him; and managed to lose all his mates to various misadventures. He might have been a king, but he showed less restraint than a teenager out on a Saturday night binge. That is the basis of his enduring appeal: on his travels, he lives out the life that we are too scared or inhibited to try. And he tells us that it wasn't so much fun after all: there is no place like home, beside his loyal wife. But Penelope is more that a match for Odysseus. She ruled for twenty years in his absence and is just as quick-witted. Old Ody isn't allowed back into their bed until he has proved himself. The Odyssey doesn't tie things up neatly: but then, neither does life....

Synchronicity / Serendipity

Funny how you just know sometimes. That this is the right way to go about things; that you were meant to be there;  that someone can be trusted.  Some people call it instinct; others say its just subliminal perception.  It can manifest as synchronicity (*), or serendipity (**), or anything else you like to call it.  but sometimes you do just know. 
I had that feeling today, as I typed in the last word.  I had hoped and planned that it would be, but I do tend to be a perfectionist:  it's hard to draw a line underneath and say good enough.  I infuriate friends in pubs, searching desperately for a napkin to write down the perfect phrase which has just occurred to me.   But today I just knew that I had reached the end of this particular stretch of road. 
So... 'Life Script' is finished!  This is the final version, and it's complete. As it says in the Rubiyat (current exhibition at the British Library, if you're interested): turn down a glass for me! 

* Syn-chronicity:  together-happening; when two apparently unrelated events occur at the same time. 
** Serendipity:   finding precious things unexpectedly by pure luck: often used of junk shops!

The Creative Vortex

Creative spiral?  Creative vortex!  Today I feel as if my brain was going down the plughole.  Sitting at the screen for hours, working out what I really want to say.  Writing the first draft was the easy bit:  this is obviously the equivalent of teenage years for my book.  It refuses to do what I want, and seems to have a mind of its own.  But at times I am stunned by the sheer fluency of what I have written, the beauty of the similes and brilliance of the metaphors employed.  Can I really have produced this?  Perhaps, as Robert Graves might say, it is the Mythic speaking through me.... The really appropriate metaphor for my mind is one of those coin whirlers that collect money for charity:  everything is spiralling round and around , but hopefully soon the penny will drop! 

The Creative Spiral (The Artists's Way)

In her book 'The Artist's Way', Julia Cameron talks about the 'creative spiral' in which we may return to a task with new tools and inspiration.  Living is a constant act of creation and re-creation:  we circle some of the same issues over and over, each time at a different level.  Like climbing a mountain, the important thing is not to head straight for the top, but to set off along the best path.  She also talks about the dangers of 'perfectionism' which can be used as an excuse for procrastination. Perfectionism is not really aobut getting things right.  We may like to think that we have high standards, but really we are putting off the day when we have to move on.  A work of art - a painting or a book - is never really finished, but after a certain point you must let it be.
'Life Script' is currently in it third chrysallis incarnation.  My original book was a fairly academic little monograph on myth and archetype.  A wonderful woman called Wendy Lazear pointed out to me how it could be turned into something much more.  The second version was much more practical, but still read rather like a text book.  I had to take three months away from it before I could see the changes that needed to be made. A few days after I had made the decision to revise again, I got a letter from a trusted source telling me exactly the same thing.  Synchronicity in action!  So now, it is being restructured and polished to make it more accessible: a handbook for living, which was what I had always wanted to write.
So this will be the final version. Good luck with your own artistic journey.  And I hope you like my book!

Epiphany: Three Kings Day - Gold, Myrrh & Frankincense

Epiphany:  Three Kings Day.  This is when the Christmas crib scene is completed:  the magi arrive, bearing gifts.  Rather than kings, they were actually astronomers and alchemists, concerned with the spiritual realm.  The gift of  gold symbolized their hope that the newborn infant would be a king; the myrrh, that he would be a healer; and the frankincense, that he would be a priest.  In other words, the Messiah would have domination over the mind, body and spirit.   Legend tells that Joseph used the gold to pay the innkeeper;  the myrrh, a pungent ointment, he rubbed on the infant's chest; and the frankincense he burned to drive smells out of the stable. 
There is a beautiful poem by TS Eliot entitled 'Journey of the Magi':
"A cold coming we had of it,
Just the worst time of the year
For a journey, and such a long journey:
The ways deep and the weather sharp,
The very dead of winter.
And the camels galled, sore-footed, refractory,
Lying down in the melting snow.
There were times we regretted
The summer palaces on slopes, the terraces,
And the silken girls bringing sherbert...."
The journey of the three wise men is a spiritual path: such ways are never easy, and we may miss the life we left behind. Eliot's poem has a bitter taste.  But somewhere on the road is an epiphany, a moment of realization and enlightenment, which gives meaning to the journey of life.  

New Year, New Decade

New Year, New Decade!  What are your new year's resolutions?  Not the ambitious ones you announce, slightly tipsy, when someone asks you at a party on the big night; nor the virtuous ones you make, feeling slightly wistful, when the next day dawns and finds life much the same  as it was before (which we all know it will be, but still can't help hoping otherwise, just in case...) No, the resolutions that matter are the groundswell ones that creep into your conscious from below, that you find lounging in your mind like intruders because you had no idea you felt that way, the things you recognize as inevitable and undeniable but had never thought you could do anything about.  And actually you can, and this is the time to do it and from that small change everything will be different.  And having acknowledged this you feel scared and a little reluctant, because there is always a sense of loss lurking beneath the excitement of new possibilities but all it takes is one tiny change and then the momentum of events will lead you on.  And you know it is the right decision because once you have made it, it feels utterly right.