Life, and Art!

I had an interesting idea a few days ago that can be credited for the creation of this blog. I felt that I needed to tell someone my idea, and I figured this would be a good place to do that. So this post is responsible for the entire blog in essence.

I would describe this idea as a sort of a metaphoric story, so to understand this idea fully you need to place yourself in the position it's being described from. My idea was this: Imagine life, or existence rather, as a massive building. Within this building are an unlimited amount of rooms. When we are born we enter this building and are given a ball of clay and assigned a room. The clay is gray and shapeless. We take our ball of clay into our assigned room. This room has a table and a stool, and on the table is a set of paints and a brush. Once we enter our room we sit down and are told to have fun. You can do whatever you want with your ball of clay, shape it, color it, leave it alone, throw it in a corner, but the choice is yours, however you only have a limited time with the clay. Now you are not required to stay in the room, but you must leave most of your clay behind if you leave. You can take a small bit of your clay into the room of another person and share your unique piece of clay with them. However, other people can do the same to you. There are 2 people in your room once you get there, and you are told they will help you get started. For the first little bit of your stay at this building 2 people will color and shape a large portion of your clay for you, but slowly they give it back to you and let you do what you want with it. Eventually they will leave your room and you're free to do what you want with your clay. Sometimes, people come into your room and smash their clay into yours, and it's up to you to decide whether you like the new piece of clay or if you want to try and pick their pieces out and give it back to them. Now obviously when this happens a few pieces will get mixed into yours regardless of how thorough you are in cleaning up your clay. Eventually though, you are told that you're time to work on your clay is almost up. You look down at your clay, now shaped and colored into something totally unique, and make sure you have done everything you want to it. They will then ask you to return your clay, and escort you from the building.

This was my idea. This idea is a metaphor, and if I've kept your interest until this point I ask you to bear with me for just a little bit longer. Explaining this metaphor is the part of the blog that is important, and I hope you can take something from it.

The metaphor is fairly simple, the building is existence, the clay and the room is your life, and the paints are events in your life. The clay begins grey and shapeless because in the first stages of your life the only thing anyone has is the genetic code of their parents. Nothing has come into your life to change the clay or add color yet. Your parents are the two people who are in the room when you get there. Your arrival is your birth, and your parents are there to guide you in shaping the clay for the first portion of your life. Eventually your parents leave, and you find that your life is in your hands now, and you can do with your life what you choose. Some people neglect their life and do nothing with it, some people make it a beautiful work of art, and some disfigure, tear, and shatter their life. But in the end it's your choice. The reason you have to leave the majority of your clay behind when you go to show someone else your clay is because you rarely share your entire life with someone right away. I know I could've gone more in depth with companions in my metaphor, but I'll explain why I didn't either here or in a later blog. Anyways, people can come color and shape your clay because people come into your life and change it, for better or for worse. They add experiences from their life to the experience of yours, or they add some of their clay to yours. People that smash their clay into yours are people who show up in your life unexpectedly, or forcibly. They're just there one day, and you have to decide whether or not you want them to be there. People always leave a lasting impact once they've entered your life, which explains the part about picking pieces out of the clay. If you've ever smashed 2 colors of clay or play-doh together, and then tried to get them completely separated you'll understand the metaphor. These people leave little bits behind, even if they're gone. It changes who you are. You can comb over your entire life trying to get rid of them, but generally some pieces will stay with you. Lastly, when the time to return your clay is near is a metaphor for the near end of your life. Often you look back and see everything you've done, all the "colors" you've added. Whether or not you're satisfied with what you've created is totally dependent on what it was you did to make your life special. Returning your clay symbolizes death, and leaving the building symbolizes what's after death. I can't say for certain what waits for us after we die, which is why the metaphor ends there.

Now I'm not claiming that my metaphor is the right way to view life, I'm simply sharing how I view it. If you view life differently then that's your thing and I have no ground to say whether or not you're wrong or right. I do ask for you to extend me the same courtesy though. Whatever your view on life may be, I feel there's some messages to take away from this metaphor.

Your life is what you make it. We only have a limited time in our lives, so make the best of as much of it as you can. I've already explained my personal view on life, but I can't stress enough how important it is to make sure you do everything you can to turn your life into something beautiful. The choices you make can have a lasting impact on your life, so make sure they're decisions you feel will make your life better. People or events may enter your life and change it, but for the most part you are in control of what happens. This blog has the potential to run on forever due to all the different directions I could take this rant, so I'll end it here. One last time, we have a limited time here, so there is absolutely no point in letting your time go to waste, make everything count!

                                                                                                  Signed with Consideration,
                                                                                                                              Duct Tape

First Post

I started this blog as a place to informally rant about things that come to my mind when I'm bored. Because of this my postings wont be on any sort of regulated frequency, I'll post things once I get an idea. I'll have my first post up in a little while, but I wanted to do an explanatory post to state what the blog is about first. So enjoy!