A Response to Sam Dunn's blog:
Finding Motivation in Blessed Unrest
As the premise, questions, and struggles with this topic
relate to teaching, I am reminded of a statement made by my high school English
teacher, Lewis Munk. He was quoting a Literature professor from Ohio State (as
I recall) whose name I have long since forgotten. According to the story, this
professor could make football linebackers love English literature. Anyway, he
said, “I cannot teach anything. "The most I can do is to stand on top of
the mountain and invite my students to come up and enjoy the view."
First, one cannot effectively invite without being
passionately on fire about the climb. Second, that fire must come from the
sheer joy of discovery, ie., learning. Discovery that one can help others to
"feel" "something" through his or her writing, painting,
composing a sonata, poem, essay, photograph, or whatever, is where the joy
comes. Discovery and communication of what we have discovered, I believe are
what drives many of us to strive.
My personal belief is that the closer we get to God, the
greater the joy of creation. That joy is only complete when we can share that
joy and that creation with others. God’s creations are the standard by which
all others are judged, either consciously, or unconsciously. I believe that from
my experiences in taking photographs. I cannot count the times that I have seen
the most beautiful vista-that I desperately wanted to share. I have shot that
vista from several different points of view. When I look at the finished
photographs, I was severely disappointed at the result. They didn’t convey what
I saw/felt at the moment of composition. I simply could not capture the
feeling. We cannot create anything without effort--in some cases, supreme
effort. Because we are eternal beings having a mortal experience, we are wont
to judge our creations by eternal standards. The truth is that as mortals we
can really only judge them by our efforts. Did we do our very best? And...and
this is a big “and”... our very best is often brought out only through multiple
efforts. Starting, destroying that effort, and starting again, sometimes
multiple times. The writing revising process is an example of that.
That is an over-long introduction to my attempt to answer
your questions. It is not, however, nearly as long as it might have been
because I have struggled with this whole notion much of my life.
I believe that the answer to question 1) lies in the efforts
of great novelists, painters, essayists, photographers, composers, etc. For the
most part they are never satisfied with just one creation. There are very few
one-work wonders. Most are driven to try again and thus through the effort do
they expand their vision. I have read from several novelists that their stories
wrote themselves and that the “vision” came as they wrote. It is as if they had
to take a few steps into the darkness before the vision came. And sometimes
that takes a considerable amount of faith. And sometimes those few steps become
many steps. You see, I am discovering what I mean as I write. My notion, my
view, my answer is only partly formed as I begin to write, but it takes shape
as I write, and even changes shape. The very act of putting it into words expands,
molds and in some cases changes what I thought into something else, as well as,
or instead of, solidifying my original thinking.
I think that sometimes the answer to question 2) is to go
back and look at what we have created and realize that, gosh, that was really
good. If I can do that once, perhaps I can do it again with something else. Now
truthfully, this process cannot be pushed nor forced. I have found that to be
especially true of the last several months as I have been creating training
presentations. Some topics just come together by themselves. Others have been percolating
sub-consciously for months and I am no closer to creating them than I have ever
been. They just won’t jell. See, here I am struggling to even find adequate
words to describe what I mean.
I am jumping off topic, but Ray Bradbury said that he would
go to the library and type for eight hours a day five days a week, and through
the process of repetition he was finally able to get his brain to learn that it
was to be ready to create and it did finally get in the habit of doing so.
There is a great book by Julia Cameron entitled The Artist’s Way that deals with how to get the “creative juices”
flowing for a creative person. It is well worth looking at for writing, but I
am certain that there are similar exercises that can be adapted for other
endeavors as well. Honestly, there is much to be said on this topic, but
motivation is an elusive goal that has plagued educators for millennia. To my
knowledge, it has never been completely solved. What motivates one individual
rolls like water off a duck’s back for someone else. There are those who will
disagree with me on this, but motivation has to be largely internal, and
external forces do little to help. I know that sounds like a cop out, but I can
do no better.
I don’t know that I can even begin to address question 3),
but J.T. Dillon wrote a book called “Questioning.”
In it he said that no one begins to learn anything until they begin to ask
questions. No one will ask questions until they begin, at least, to feel
frustration. Therefore frustration must precede learning. Also only student
questions are of value. The only viable use for teaching questions is to create
the frustration necessary for students to begin to ask their own questions. I
believe that writing is a great way to ask and then begin to discover the
answers to those questions. The writing that results will then be the creation
that becomes the masterpiece, or at least the thing that leads to the next
question. I guess what I am really trying to say is that the mere realization and
memory that frustration is necessary, and that so is the struggle to answer the
questions that it creates, can help us to continue on in the face of that all too
necessary struggle and difficulty. Finally, if the difficulty is too great, it
may be best to write down the frustration, its questions, and move on to
another related, or even unrelated question, until the subconscious has the
time to give, find, create, craft, or whatever, the beginnings of an answer.
That process may have to be repeated many times before one
project is completed. I give as an example a little essay that I wrote about
the mortality of time. My first ponderings on that subject began when I was
still in the equivalent of junior high or middle school. Questions, insights,
answers, more questions, came gradually over the years until some 50 plus years
later, I finished the essay. At least I think I have finished. I have added to
it several times over the last year. In the meantime, I have written, and
created, and completed many other projects that were not as vexing to me as
that one was.
I know you are sorry that you brought the subject up. I am
afraid that my “comment” is as long or longer than your original post. I
apologize, but you really did open the barn doors to a subject that I had not
realized had been smoldering under the surface of my own subconscious for who knows
how long.
