Dabble may be the word

Dabble may be the word… Being good at anything? The first step is to think about what one may be good at, before asserting is one is or not (laughing softly). What could one/I may be good at? A secondary question is how does one/I become good at anything (!) So where do we start? Well, perhaps right here: am I good at writing?

Dabble 1

Can I/one be judge of how good we are at writing, which is not the same as producing “good writing”. I would suggest, ever so cautiously, that I may be good at writing, which does not mean that my writing is good. Does this make sense? I enjoy writing, the act of writing, thinking about something I wish to translate into prose, poetry, some article, whatever, and somehow getting on with doing it. Of course the result may be deplorable, rubbish! In that way I may be good at the act of writing, finding inspiration, being creative, and a rubbish writer, judging by the result. Any thought?

Any dabble? How about sex? Ha ha. Or photography? Or sports? Or parenthood?

Dabble 2

Photography is interesting. In bursts, I am “into” photography, with years when this was my main occupation leisure-wise. I have had the same old (now) Nikon camera (start of the range) for some time, may be near fifteen years. I took it everywhere I travelled to, on holiday, on short trips, at home. I flirted with models, tried various tricks with editing.

Now I am looking into (! Aphorism for dabbling with) AI photography enhancement. This goes into noise removal, light balance, all these things photo editing programmes do, more or less well. Am I good at using them? Are my photos any good? Evidently it depends, on so many things, inspiration is one, light, subject, clouds, skies, advice from “experts”…

Dabble 3

How about sex? Well, I have thought about this a great deal in my youth, as real and imaginary partners came and went, as I grew older, as I travelled. In the end, now that I am nearer to the end, my end, I am convinced there is no good sex without spirituality. But then I am a convert, not an expert.

The only thing I can say I am good at is reading. This is because reading is a very personal thing, although one can indulge in socialising at Goodreads and neighbourhood book clubs. Reading is a personal experience, how we read, what we read, how often, all are personal decisions, not engaging anyone else. One does not exhibits one’s reading, except in writing reviews, or “reading notes, as I do in these pages.

Dabble 4

My teacher, Ivan Ilyin, wrote beautifully about reading:

“A responsible writer nurtures his book for a long time:for years, and sometimes his entire life; he doesn’t part with it night or day; he gives it his best strength, his inspired hours; he agonises over its theme and then finds healing through writing it. He searches for truth, beauty, “precision”,a true style, a true rhythm, all to be able to impart, without distorting them, the visions of his heart…

And finally, the work is ready. A final review with a strict, sharp eye, the final corrections – and the book breaks away and departs to the reader, one who is unknown, distant, perhaps frivolous and inconsistent as spring, perhaps virulently critical. It departs without him, the author. He excludes himself and leaves the reader with his book alone.

And so we, the readers, take to reading his book. Before us lies the accumulation of feelings, discoveries, ideas, images, imparted desires, directions, appeals, proofs – a spiritual tapestry, all of which is given to us hidden, encoded. It is locked beneath those black, lifeless hooks, those commonplace, overused words, those easily accessible images, those abstract concepts. The book’s life, brightness, strength, meaning, spirit – all of this must be drawn out by the reader himself. He must recreate within himself everything that the author has created.

And if he cannot, will not or does not want to do this, no one else will do it for him; his reading will be in vain and the book will go over his head… the true reader gives a book his free attention, his entire spiritual capability, and his ability to evoke within himself that faithful spiritual state essential for understanding this book. True reading does not consist of running printed words though the consciousness; it requires a focused attention and a firm desire to truly hear the voice of the author.

Mere intellect and empty imagination is not enough for reading. It is necessary to feel with the heart and contemplate from the heart. One must relive passion through passionate emotion; one must experience  drama and tragedy with an active will; in fine lyrical poetry , one must hear all the sighs, tremble with one’s own tenderness, gaze into all the depths and distances; a great idea, however, must demand no more and no less than the entire person.

This means that the reader is called upon to faithfully recreate the spiritual and internal act of the writer within himself; to live through this act and trustingly give himself over it. Only the reader and writer, after which all the vital and significant things that occupied and immersed the author will be revealed to the reader. True reading is in its own way an artistic clairvoyance …”