"In order to write about life, first you must live it." -- Ernest Hemingway
Hemingway often spoke about the tension between art and life -- and the fact that there is a contest between the two for the serious writer. If a writer retreats into seclusion for too long a period of time, the work becomes limited, self-referential, irrelevant. And if a writer gives way to too much "living" -- too much travel, experience, adventure -- there isn't time for deep reflection, for revelation, for the quiet in which the best creative insight can occur.
So, the artist must try to do both -- to do and to be -- to welcome company and to embrace seclusion -- to accept the conflict between art and life if any of the mysterious alchemy of creation is to occur. In the best of circumstances, the writer invests the work with life, emotion, vibrancy, transformation -- and the work returns to the writer more life, emotion, vibrancy, transformation. The creator and the creation offer breath and sustenance to one another in a miraculous circuit -- an electric current -- that brings energy and renewal to everyone who approaches it.
How does this happen? How can life and art join together to become something greater than the sum of separate parts? It's a mystery. And like all enigmas, it wants to be allowed its sacred space. The tension between art and life continues -- in a dance, a dialog, a passionate affair -- that is sustaining and enlivening to both of them. And this writer lives with one foot in both worlds -- that of the adventurer and that of the recluse -- until the work is done.
Laughing while teasing my friend about being so successful, he can no longer put down his phone!
Enjoying the A.C.T. gala on Saturday night with my novelist friend, Heather.
The Salar de Uyuni reminds me of meeting someone who mirrors our own identity back to us.
She seeks to be understood, not to be captured.
I stood with my father at the threshold between two worlds.
This could be Odysseus on the island of Calypso, or Poseidon with his triton – or this could be my remarkable father, spear-fishing in the Bahamas.
The stone of greatest value in the territory -- where the spirit returns again and again
The view from the edge of the world
Sunset spills over with beauty.
Strength, wisdom, speed, courage, kindness. My only complaint about this fellow is that he travels too much, ensuring that I miss him.
Amber, gold and hope, as Van Gogh saw them in 1888.
My thoroughbred: power and instinct, senses and spirit, grace and emotion
Perfect day for a hike along the coast
Spent an extraordinary afternoon at a hidden cove in Big Sur.
Highly recommend these new Nordica NXT X80R boots! Great fit and performance for people with slim feet -- like me!
A little windy on top of Mt. Rose on Monday afternoon, but the powder, due to the higher elevation, is the best to be found in Tahoe right now.
Lakeside treasures
A second infinity pool awaits me this afternoon. Heaven.
Flying above the Pacific in the infinity pool
Dance is a life force, a vitality, an energy, a quickening.
The Sea Transcends
Life Electrified
The Candle Lights the Fortress
