My Business Is To Create!

I was feeling a little stressed out earlier so I made a post in my private journal. In that post I wrote:

“Sometimes I just wish that I could just do what I want to do. Just sit around and write. And drink tea. And laugh and be happy and somewhat carefree.

Unfortunately for all of us, life isn't like that.”

I was later discussing this with a friend and he told me how he and his other friend had some kind of connection for business, but it’s locked. He said that they feel they are both here for a greater purpose. They’re made to do something more. They just don’t know what it is yet.

And this got me thinking. Are we all here for a greater purpose? A greater purpose – let’s define that. If you do something for a greater purpose, you are doing it for something else. For a reason other than yourself. We may not know what that reason is but what we do know is that it feels right to be doing it. A greater purpose – it’s almost something divine – but let’s not bring religion into this.

I was once informed that, “To understand is to inspire”. I have thought about this long and hard. It’s a short but meaningful statement. And what I deduced from it is that, if you can understand someone’s situation, if you have experienced something similar, or if you just know what someone is talking about and you really understand it, then you are able to inspire that person. Now, in logic, it seems a little silly. But let’s think about it. If you are able to understand someone’s situation, say you might have experienced it yourself before, then you are able to inspire them. It makes sense. If you give someone advice about the situation then they will think about it (though they might deny it). But they will go away and think about it and they might act upon that advice. And therefore, by understanding their situation and giving your ideas/opinions/advice, you have inspired that person to take a further action in order to possibly improve that situation for them. And therefore, you have understood, and you have inspired.

So let’s take all this and relate it to myself. Essentially, I am a writer. I have a genuine passion for writing poems, stories, prose, scripts etc. It’s something I enjoy. And I do it for a purpose (believe it or not). With everything I write, I hope that if someone ever reads it, that they may feel inspired. In saying that though, some of my poetry can be rather depressing and I hope I don’t inspire people to take the path I chose, but to take the other one. In essence, when I write poetry or whatever, I hope that people are inspired by my experiences to do something about their own, if they understand it. On many rare occasions I have inspired someone somewhere and they have told me. And this has made me feel extremely happy, because I fulfilled the purpose I intended too. But is this my greater purpose? Am I destined to write forever in order to inspire others? (Not that I’m complaining…).

Whilst I was away off in thinking land, thinking about all of this, a quote came to my mind. I recently went to see a movie for the third time (it was a good movie!) and this quote had never been brought to my attention until I heard it. I know little about the author who wrote it, though I know it was taken from a somewhat religious ‘story’. The man I am talking about is Mister William Blake, who in his book Jerusalem, wrote:

"I must create a system or be enslaved by another mans; I will not reason and compare: my business is to create."

The part that got me, was the ‘my business is to create’. This is quite apt and is also the part that is significant in the movie. If I want to make people understand, if I want to inspire them, obviously I’ve got to create something. So that’s what I do. I create entries on blogs (i.e. here...), I take photographs and I write poems/stories/scripts/prose. I create, to make people understand and to inspire them. Essentially, it IS my business to create.

So, I’m not going to go on anymore, I’ve already posed quite a lot of things that you might want to think about. And I hope that whenever you read my blog, that one day you might feel inspired and if not, I just hope that you enjoy it. And perhaps, you might discover your own greater purpose, perhaps you already know it and maybe just maybe, our purposes might cross paths. But who knows?