Created to Create

FartMan recently posted the following comment on ZoomberGirl's cancer-fighting blog.

TheAstonishingFartMan (unregistered) wrote:

Hey ZoomberGirl,

By way of apology and reparation for my last, perhaps disconcerting, comment, of which not all might appreciate the humor, may I gently philosophize? (And who's gonna try to stop grumpy little ol' me?)

One of my silly theories is that human activity can generally be divided into two categories: creating and acquiring, giving and taking, producing and consuming.

As I began, or rather I should say, as I begin, to acknowledge my own mortality, which is something we all must do sooner or later whether or not we happen to have cancer (as I do, Stage IV Colon Cancer with Liver Mets), as part of that process of wrestling with my mortality, I discovered within myself an impulse, a compulsion, a yearning, to create.

I'm no artist, but suddenly I wanted to make art. I'm no cook, but suddenly I wanted to fix dinner for all my friends. (And now I understand better why my dear mother-in-law would slave for hours every Sunday to make a meal that we gluttons would consume in less than thirty minutes.) I'm no musician, but suddenly I could not stop myself whistling with the birds during my walks around the neighborhood. I'm no carpenter, but suddenly I found myself spending way too much time in my garage making strange little pieces of furniture or other odd wood objects.

Hmmm?!?!?!

Is that desire to create merely a vain wish to "leave something behind that they will remember me by"?

Yes, to some extent, that rather selfish motive cannot be denied.

But the impulse to create is not essentially selfish. Quite the opposite, the desire to create is essentially generous. It is a desire to give of oneself. But along with that, more than that, the desire to create is a yearning to follow The Divine Example, to participate in and join with The Eternal and Divine, through the God-like act of creation.

I think this creative yearning is one of the many meanings we can find for that glorious, generative, and comforting tidbit of Biblical information that tells us we are all created in the image of God. We are created in the image of The Creator! Thus, we are created to create, which means we are created to give and to share, most especially of ourselves.

Your paintings, into which you pour your heart and soul, will eventually turn to dust or ash. They cannot last. Michelangelo's dome cannot last. Our bodies cannot last. Yet I do believe eternal the creative giving acts that brought these things into being.