Perfect your line. Build your speed. Make it beautiful.
Line
Every letter and shape begins with one. The first placement of the writing instrument on the page, the mark produced by a quick action of the wrist. A line emerges. Straight or curved, font determined by the angle, the momentum, the slant. Lines can be crisp delineations or contours shaping the landscape. They can be demarcations, separations and borders: each for security or independence. Lines can be tactile, like braille, or communicative like Morse Code. Dashes, hyphens or bars, each representing sounds or words. Even just a simple scribble, an expression of boredom or distraction embodies emotion in a subtle, unassuming way. Lines shape, distinguish and embody.
Lines can be measured, meters or inches. They can be divided, traced and configured. They are tangible images, we get in our heads from an early age. "Line up at the door," or "Form a queue." We as humans feel more organized if we have a line. A line for coffee, for the restroom, even on the highway, traffic is a line of cars. If our vehicles were strewn all over the place, travel would be chaos.This is why we have yellow or white divider lines down freeways, thoroughfares and roads. They keep the flow of our lives organized. Like the grooves of a stream, as it curves and meanders down the landscape. It is a force, the simple line, in almost every aspect of our lives. A symbol of specificity. A broker of mathematics, language and science.
Bilateral or symmetry there is a furrow or wrinkle that separates. Sometimes a line is marked. Sometimes it is implied, like the Equator or Tropic of Capricorn: recognized and honored but very much imaginary in nature. Windows are framed, doorways arched, by lines. Silhouettes are shadowed with a darkening of an edge. A shoulder between obscurity and light. Yet, this shaded profile illuminates. It creates a figure we recognize. Lines can limit, but they can also maximize liberation. People often say "A line has been crossed." Meaning in some trenchant way expectations were marred. Feelings were hurt, morals were strained. Yet, the borderline, the perimeter was never defined. It was never agreed upon. This line, the mark in the sand, we often draw around our comfortability, is personal, it is very much real, if only in our minds.
The problem arises when the periphery is fluid and our expectations are not made clear. Borders are set politically, so that this miscommunication, can be kept to a minimum. These margins of countries and counties are there to bring order. They are not always fair or logistically sound, but they are purposeful. They are in place to keep a semblance of normalcy. To keep a framework for movement of goods, to protect and manage commerce and travel. Again, not always fair but purposeful. The imaginary, personal lines we set up around ourselves are no different. They maintain an assumption of protection and communication. Yet, they are often inflexible, causing closed mindedness. They often construct high walls of separation, not allowing situations, in which one can grow and expand.
Perfect your line. Lines do not need to be permanent. Nor do they need to be guarded at all times, constricting the mobility of wanderers. We build relationships by lowering our drawbridge and allowing others to venture in and share ideas and emotions. When we sit atop a fortified tower, we isolate ourselves. To perfect our line, we need to build multiple spiral staircases, open our portcullis and allow others to take up residence. Our line needs to be permeable, accessible and manageable. If we place too heavy of a garrison, not only will others retreat, but many will never cross the expanse to even try to form an alliance. Step one- a line should never be forged in steel. Stone is strong and durable, but with the right tools, it can also be re-imagined and reset. Lines should be conceived and generated to bend and flex with the times. The speed at which it is erected, ultimately guides the level of beauty it exudes.
Speed
Speed is relative. Time appears to many, as slow and truncated. For others, situations are a blur. How we set our inner clock determines our perspective. We rush through certain situations because they make us uncomfortable. While, when we are in a place of calm and joy, we tend to stretch it out, making sure we get to experience every moment of it. If we haphazardly construct our sense of things, we miss opportunities. Our framework may seem sound, but it is tittering, due to uneven layers and misshapen memories. But, if we take each brick, each new experience and reflect, add mortar in balanced, smooth, seams- just maybe with time to dry and settle, they will add strength and fortitude to the fabric of our tapestry.
In other words, if we slow our speed, just a little, we can pick up more nuances and frame our border more accurately. We hang this masterpiece, this construction of reality, around us, the vibrancy of life, each panel an adventure we have taken. To prevent unraveling we must secure each thread. These stones and filaments, strands and slabs form the line- the boundary between ourselves and others. Speed matters. Perfection does not. Step two- use a level, well-constructed material and patience to lay the foundation of your perspective. The more we allow for alterations, the more freedom we allow ourselves, to climb over and walk around, rather than getting stuck behind our own misconceptions.
Beauty
The beauty of freedom of expression is that you feel like yourself, you are no longer tied down behind a wall of limitations. The highest part of the wall is often erected not by you, but by those who wish to have their boundaries secure. Beauty is definitely in the eye of the beholder. But exposure to the difficult, the overwhelming, the disquieting, is important for our well being. This emotional roller coaster not only allows us to empathize and sympathize, it allows us to recognize the beauty in everything. Above all it forces us to see the details, the differences, the eccentricities, that make us all individuals. We may not like what we see, or hear, but we need to appreciate the value in creativity, individuality and personal expression.
The artistry of the disgusting is a marketable form of entertainment. Some thrive on watching and interacting with the uneasy. Others shy away from the unnerving, that is the nature of the beast. Freedom of expression does not bring unity, it brings discordance. It brings to the surface outspoken and determined individuals whose purpose is to destroy these liberties. But more tragically, to squelch the privilege to express it. The beauty of life is that it is a cycle- carbon, water, energy. Each have an ebb and flow, but are never created nor destroyed. They transform. Opinions, extravagances and influences do as well. Yet, these lines, these personal boundaries, often do not.
Beauty is everywhere. It appears not only before triumph and success, but after tragedy and failure. It is embedded in language and meaning, mathematics and science. It is visible on the faces of children, tasted in amazing food and felt in meditative and exciting experiences. It is absent in hatred, greed and prejudice. It is lost in moments of outrage and anger, yet it is found in resolve and forgiveness. Lines form profiles and open up frontiers. They change the flow of matter and energy. They transform neighborhoods, halt progress and build bridges. Above all, lines create a sense of pride, design new ways of doing things, because we are forced to step around them, they detach, emancipate and rescue. They are life lines as much as they are borderlines.
Step three- see the line, keep it fluid. Cultivate it and nurture it rather than simply construct it. This line should be not preventative but inviting. We all have these borders. Its a part of being human. But, we also have the consciousness to be aware of our limitations and expand our mind set. This is growth. So, lines ultimately are beauty itself, because they are a part of everything and everything: star dust, molecules of carbon and water, waves of light and energy- these aspects of our world are a part of us. Line, speed, beauty- each a layer of existence, each a building block of humanity. Now all we need to do is stop and smell the roses and see how the three combine to bring a perfect semblance.
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