I deeply appreciate your reflection on "acting from a place of alignment with who you truly are." This concept has come at me from a few places in the past week and I've been thinking a lot about it. The more I read and talk to others about their paths, the more convinced I am that being able to articulate who you are, and then figuring out how to act in alignment with that, is the most important work each of us can do in our lives.
I have a somewhat tangential question (or is it??). I also imagine that skeptic asking about whether craft is REALLY capable of teaching people fundamental lessons about existence. That skeptic isn't me, exactly--I've read about and experienced too many similar lessons--but it does live in my head. It points out that there are plenty of very, very skilled craftspeople and artists who inflict tragic harm on the world around them. It's demonstrably possible to develop skill in a chosen medium and completely miss the transformation you experienced through carving. So I wonder: do you think there's some kind of prerequisite to that transformation? Does something else have to happen before a person can learn these deep lessons through whatever it is they spend their time doing?
I deeply appreciate your reflection on "acting from a place of alignment with who you truly are." This concept has come at me from a few places in the past week and I've been thinking a lot about it. The more I read and talk to others about their paths, the more convinced I am that being able to articulate who you are, and then figuring out how to act in alignment with that, is the most important work each of us can do in our lives.
I have a somewhat tangential question (or is it??). I also imagine that skeptic asking about whether craft is REALLY capable of teaching people fundamental lessons about existence. That skeptic isn't me, exactly--I've read about and experienced too many similar lessons--but it does live in my head. It points out that there are plenty of very, very skilled craftspeople and artists who inflict tragic harm on the world around them. It's demonstrably possible to develop skill in a chosen medium and completely miss the transformation you experienced through carving. So I wonder: do you think there's some kind of prerequisite to that transformation? Does something else have to happen before a person can learn these deep lessons through whatever it is they spend their time doing?