30 Mar 2007

Lighthouses

Posted by joncooper

I was sitting at my desk, happily molding a shapeless lump of clay into a beautiful work of art, when my professor walked by. He examined what I was doing with a frown on his face.

“What is that?” he said, gesturing toward my creation.

“A lighthouse!” I said. “Can’t you tell?”

“Yes,” he said, “I see it is a lighthouse. But – why?”

“Why?” I said, not understanding.

“Yes. Why? Why do you make these lighthouses? I have seen you make a dozen of them, one after the other. That is all you ever make – lighthouses. Why?”

“I’ve specialized!” I said. “I’ve discovered that I am good at making lighthouses; they are easy, they look nice, and they turn out so well. I’m starting to get the hang of this!”

“But why a lighthouse?” my professor asked. “What does a lighthouse mean to you? Does it have some deeper meaning? Does it express a heartfelt longing within your soul?”

“Don’t be silly, Professor! It’s just a lighthouse. It took me forever to find something that I could make, but I finally found it! You are looking at a very happy person.”

“Then it’s no good!” he said. “No good at all. If it means nothing to you then why do you think it will mean something to your audience? Why do you spend your time making things of no value?”

“Because it’s easy!” I said. “Look how good these things are turning out!”

“Bah!” he muttered. “Look. The purpose of art is not to make rows and rows of meaningless lighthouses that offer no light; the purpose of art is to speak – to shout – to whisper – to educate – to illuminate. Your art must have meaning, it must have purpose, it must have feeling. You must put your very heart and soul into it. If you put nothing into it then you will get nothing out of it, and it will all be nothing more than a waste of time. Why spend your time making things of no value?”

I looked at him, and then looked back at the half-formed lighthouse that sat in front of me. “But this is so much easier,” I said.

“Doing nothing is easier than doing something,” he agreed.

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