Against the challenges of time, all thing degrade like these ruins. In the meantime, consider the shields you might employ to forestall erosion of your best plans.
We are all travelers through the world. Moving through space, moving through time: nobody’s life remains where it begins. Movement itself is an engine of ideas. As the writer Mark Strand put it in his lightning bolt of a poem, “I move to keep things whole.” (C’mon, it’s short. You should read it!)
Some of us are compelled to create things along our journey. Some build houses. Some write poems. Some people study specialized forms of medicine in order to forestall infection from pernicious, politically potent viruses. We could discuss and debate the reasons people create things all day long.
Artists and accountants are not always motivated by the same forces. As I’ve gotten older and a little less judgmental in my pronouncements about other people, I’ve come to believe that there are often more crossover forces between artists and accountants than first glance might suggest. Clearly this is more a matter about aesthetics; I cannot fathom a life in accounting, but I’m sure glad I know a good one when I need her to sort things out.
I think, therefore I digress.
The matter at hand concerns the journeys we take. Whether discussing the greater life-long journey we all will metaphorically walk, or a particular sojourn to a singular moment and place in our life, it’s the same thing: we get an idea or an assignment, we figure out our route from A to B, we set out.
Then life happens.
Consider Jason and the Argonauts on their journey to retrieve the Golden Fleece. What passed for Google Maps in mythological literature invested them in the idea of traveling close to the fabled islands of Sirenum Scopuli, upon which they would likely encounter the wafting songs of the Sirens. What songs, indeed! The story among the Athenian cognoscenti was that these songs were so enchanting that travelers were known to drown themselves or crash their vessels on the rocks in vain efforts simply to get closer to the source of such sweet sound. As a travel destination, it had appeal from afar perhaps, but Jason knew these were risks of such profound peril that the storied bravado of his crew would not be enough to forestall disaster.
In later tales, we discover novel Siren solutions. Odysseus had his crew plug their ears with bees wax to block Siren song. Odysseus had himself bound to the ship’s mast, his temporarily ear-plugged crew directed to push them past the danger. Sirenum Scopuli safely skirted, Odysseus’s quest continued.
But back to Jason and his guys. No foreknowledge and no bees wax. No detour available, no submarine to take. What’s to do when dangerously distracteded from a quest?
Successful artists and accountants are different from dilettantes insofar as they successfully see enterprises through from inception to completion. How many people have an idea for a novel, but never write the damn thing down? How many people think they’re going to complete their own taxes only to call a pro with scant days until the deadline? Success is often a function of figuring out how to get something completely done. Wrapped up. Finito.
The forces of the world, however, don’t care one whit about your goals. Distractions loom like Siren songs and horizon storms on wine dark seas.
What to do?
What to do?
What to do?
Find your shield. There are solutions. You must think hard, but with risks looming you probably cannot think too long to figure it all out. The songs will drown even your best intentions if they’re given more than a moment to prey on your day, your time, your soul. You must find a way to forestall calamity without giving up yourself in the process.
Among Jason’s august crew, the great musician Orpheus also travelled. Facing certain doom, Jason asked Orpheus to play his own music—Hellenic counter-programming to rise above the Siren song, so to speak. This musical shield neither destroyed the Sirens, nor damaged the Argonauts, but it did enable the boatsmen to continue on their quest, focused, hale, and emboldened with the awareness that clever solutions sometimes came from unusual sources.
Play on, Orpheus. Play on.