Leaving Joplin.
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notes from "Artistic Activity," Fr Nathan Cromly
"The difference between the idea and the secret is the difference between art and love. What is a secret? Aristotle said the proper role of friends is to reveal secrets to one another. When does someone to whom I'm well-disposed--an acquaintance, say--pass a level? From my wishing well to another person to living well for that other person? A real friend is actually committed to you. It is an attraction to the other in which the other transforms you. That other person is causing you--not your existence--but causing you to be in a certain way. You are causing me to be ordered towards you. There is an intuitional presence of the other in me, a gift of the other towards me that causes me to give to him my commitment. That intentional affective presence of the other in me is a secret."
"You can ruin your moral life by treating an artistic endeavor as though it causes a secret. By questing after something as though it is someone, I am seduced into believing the idea is my end when, in reality, I am its end."
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(And also by treating a secret as though it is an artistic endeavor.)
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"Almost all poets are self-involved and narcissistic. If you're not, you might want to work on that."
(props to Suzanne for the link)
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