“The deepest of level
of communication is not communication, but communion.
It is wordless ...
beyond speech ... beyond concept.”
Thomas Merton
Seeking the Last Light
Communion. I’ve
always loved this word…not because of its religious connotation but because of
its derivation and primary meaning as “the sharing or exchanging of intimate
thoughts and feelings, esp. when the exchange is on a mental or spiritual
level.” Wiktionary.com explains the etymology of the word as “from Old French
comunion, from Latin commūniō (“communion”), from cum (“with”) + mūnus
(“gift”). Used as a noun to mean, “a joining together of minds or spirits.”
We’ve probably all used the verb form “to commune” in reference to our being
outside trying to stay in touch with nature. So it makes perfect sense that a
hero should need such a virtue to complete his/her sacred quest – for what good
is the first part of the journey to self-awareness, coming to that deep knowing
of self, if we never know how to share that gift of self with another. That is
the whole point of the second half of the quest.
Perhaps that’s why we blog. And very likely it is why as artists and writers, we seek out others engaged in the same creative arts and rather than just post and run, we join “groups” and get involved in the “community” aspect of the internet sites to which we belong.
Paul Martin, author of The Teacher’s View blog (http://plmartinwrite.blogspot.com), expresses the deep connection – the communion - between the artist/writer and the viewer/reader this way, “…art requires three things: the artist, the object, and the viewer. It is only through the communion of these three that the art is fully realized.” He goes on to say that “Writers write to be read and anyone who would say otherwise is a liar.” That reminded me of the little Samuel Johnson quote on my Nook reader cover – “A writer only begins a book – a reader finishes it.” Unread poems, unread stories are dead poems and dead stories and the paper on which they are written might as well be burned up in a conflagration like Fahrenheit 451. But, in truth, I think exactly the same thing is true of visual arts. Each of us only begins the art work we present – it is incomplete and virtually meaningless unless someone sees it and responds to it in some kind of dialectical communion of minds and hearts. Through my art and writing, I am asking to be known, accepted and liked…and cherished. I’ve shared myself – left myself vulnerable to rejection, attack or condemnation as much as to praise. I’ve offered the only gift that is truly mine to offer – myself – and I’m asking you…the reader or the viewer of my poems or paintings, to welcome me in to a communion of the minds and perhaps hearts too.
Art or writing may be, as I said in an earlier post, a solitary endeavor in the doing. But without communion, the art is meaningless and the sacred quest is too lonely to be borne.
Keen, Sam. (1992, April). Fire in the Belly: On Being a Man.
Bantam Books, New York, NY.
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