Who inspires you?
We all run dry in our lives. Much like nature, our life is cyclical. It dips and wains and sometimes flat lines for a time. There is nothing wrong with this. Life needs time out in order to come back with greater motivation and focus. We can’t always be at a hundred percent, like an elastic band taut tightly. We need to relax, regroup and face once again our daily challenges.
I wanted to write this blog post because inspiration is really important, especially at this time of extreme lockdown. Inspiration is like a sunrise that pierces the darkness and impacts on your life far greater than any midday sun.
Recently I came across an interview piece from Dorothy Day where she says -
“You know, I’m always telling people to read Dickens or Tolstoy, or read Orwell, or read Silone. I could be one of your teachers – though I’m not a great one for analyzing those novels; I want to live by them! That’s the ‘meaning of life’ – to live up to the moral vision of the Church, and of some of my favorite writers. This would have been a far lonelier life for me, if I hadn’t ‘met’ Mr Dickens or Mr Tolstoy, and some others. I have had David Copperfield as a companion – over half a century of going back to certain chapters, passages; and the same with the books of Dostoevsky and Tolstoy, and certain Chekhov stories.
“Now don’t think I’ve lost my mind – but I’ll tell you, I’ll look at some of the cards I have, some of Van Gogh’s pictures of the poor, the coal miners, of Daumier’s, and I talk to those pictures! I look, and I speak. I get strength from the way those writers and artists portrayed the poor, that’s how I’ve kept going all these years: I pray to God and go visit Him in churches; and I have my conversational time with Van Gogh or with Dickens – I’ll look at a painting reproduced on a postcard, that I use as a bookmark, or I read one of those underlined pages in one of my old books, and Lord, I’ve got strength to get through the morning or afternoon!”
DECIDE THE LIFE YOU WANT
Who inspires you? Who gives you strength? We all need it so where do you get it?
In this technocratic information age, it’s so easy to get any input we want. And maybe that’s where it becomes difficult, there is so much information and if we’re not informed, we’re behind the curve “out of touch”. But in many respects all these info-bites are like popcorn to the brain – air with no nourishment – tweets, posts, news flashes, reels, etc.
We need real intellectual food that feeds our brains, fills our heart and gives us the impetus to launch out and live well. For that, we need to choose. Choose what we want to read, listen and watch. In this year, I’d like to encourage you to intentionally choose that nourishment and be brave enough to let go of the rest.
When I read that interview with Dorothy Day, it reminded me once again of the importance of not only nourishing our faith but also nourishing ourselves in the humanities. We can do ourselves a great disservice if we avoid reading the great Classics, listening to well-renowned composers, looking at beautiful paintings or watching excellent films. If we stay at the surface, only assimilating what is currently in vogue right now, we can cut ourselves off from what history can teach us. I’m not saying here that we overlook the top 10 hits or the latest bestseller, but perhaps rather than accepting our recommended feed in main-stream culture, that instead we decide on what we want.
We are what we eat, and we become what we let into our minds and hearts. This year, wouldn’t it be lovely if you could say – I want to become the best version of myself – and to get there, I want to choose this book, this music, this film. And in doing so, much like Dorothy Day, you live by them and find the ‘meaning of life’ through them.
As Dorothy Day said:
“When I die, I hope people will say that I tried to be mindful of what Jesus told us – His wonderful stories – and I tried my best to live up to His example (…) and I tried to take those artists and novelists to heart, and live up to their wisdom.”