Manifesto: Every Artist/Rebel Needs One

The following principles emerged out of twenty years of publishing Heron Dance, and, before that, from thirty years of living life on my own terms. Much of it evolved out of the year I spent studying Thoreau’s two-million-word journals to compile Thoreau And The Art Of Life, and then condensing the results to a single page in the hopes I might understand his insights better, and consider which I might incorporate into my own life.

I’m not saying I always follow the principles outlined below, although they are easy to understand and, generally speaking, are easier to follow than the contrary paths I’ve often strayed down. I seem to have, in my own life, an affinity for difficult paths. Heron Dance would not exist if I didn’t. The juice of life hangs out in the contradictions. Your contradictions. My contradictions.

I do strive to adhere to the principles below. I do benefit when I do. I offer them here knowing that you will reject what doesn’t fit in your life, and put to good use any that do.

Guiding principles:

• Everything worthwhile in life requires love, faith and imagination. Friendship, love, imagination, a spiritual life, a close connection to the natural world—all are mysterious and difficult to put into words. Art and writing — poetry, fiction — help us understand that which is difficult to understand.

• Art emerges out of our inner life.

• The processes of life co-exist with the processes of death. Good health, and life itself, are temporary.

• Society is a contrived reality. Expediency is valued; truth is not.

• Elements of a quality life: live simply, do quality, beautiful work that is not rushed, avoid waste, live below your means and keep a reserve. Set aside a substantial portion of your time for leisure.

• A close relationship with nature brings joy and peace to a human life.

• Simple living enhances our awareness of — and openness to — the beauty of the natural world.

• A spiritual life is a life of calmness, of openness to mystery, beauty and infinity.

• Frequent walks in the woods can contribute peace and serenity to a human life.

• Wisdom and simplicity are closely related.

• Know who you are and live it. Befriend yourself.

• Make time for silence.

• Adopt a thoughtful rhythm to your work and life.

 Friendship and Love

Friendship and love are crucial to a well-lived life.

• Friendship requires faith.

• Friendship is based on love, even if unexpressed. Friendship is partly a matter of reality and partly a product of imagination.

• Friendship is a miracle and a mystery, and it engenders emotions that are difficult to understand or put into words.

• Friendship requires understanding but not necessarily words.

• Friendship is based on truth, and can endure truth, even difficult truths.

• One needs an open heart to be a good friend, just as an open heart is required to have a profound relationship with nature.

• Friendships end for reasons that are often difficult to understand, but valid. 

Art, Creativity & Writing

Art emerges out of imagination.

•  Art is based first of all on the unique life of someone who has truly lived.

• Inspiration and imagination often take time to evolve into a work of art. The process must follow its pace, not ours.

• When inspired, an artist should lay all else aside because inspiration does not wait for us.

• The creation of art must be based on the best that is in you.

• True art is lawless—it doesn’t conform.

• True art is daring. Institutions fear it.

• True art has a harmony about it.

• Artists get inspiration from their moods.

• Art proposes a deeper reality.

• An artist must defend his or her work against those who would alter it to make it more palatable or saleable.

• An artist’s faith in the validity of the work must be greater than the short term response of the marketplace.

• Creativity is similar to the life force that exists in nature.

• Art requires hard work, courage and faith.

Aging, Disease, Death

The processes of life co-exist with the processes of death. Good health, and life itself, are temporary.

• Age brings an awareness of the certainty of death, and thus brings gravity to our thoughts on life.

• Disease is a part of life—a part of the processes of life, whether the life of man or the life of plants.

• Aging reduces the elasticity of mind and body alike, and thus limits both our imagination and our ambitions.

• Aging does not inhibit our sense of, or appreciation of, the divine.

• Death provides nourishment for new life.

• Each death of someone we love takes a little of our own life force. 

Human Society and Culture

Society is based on the fundamental belief that expediency is more important than truth, but society cannot be expected to acknowledge this.

• Slaves must be obedient, and the obedient slaves.

• Goodwill is uncommon among men, and extremely uncommon among institutions.

• Society is a contrived reality, and it buries truth deep.

• Quality in a human is related to quiet honesty.

The Art of Living a Meaningful Life

Elements of a quality life: live simply, do quality work that is not rushed, avoid waste, live below your means and keep a reserve. Our relationships with time, leisure and quiet affect the quality of our lives.

“The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation. From the desperate city you go into the desperate country, and have to console yourself with the bravery of minks and muskrats. A stereotyped but unconscious despair is concealed even under what are called the games and amusements of mankind. There is no play in them, for this comes after work. But it is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things..”
- Henry David Thoreau, Walden

• Serve your concept of good. Live your life with as much love as you can find inside yourself.

• Live below your means. Spend money carefully.

• Make time for a close relationship with nature.

• Think carefully about how much emphasis you place on earning money. Good decisions allow us to live our “inner music.” Poor decisions lead to a life of “quiet desperation”. Artists in particular need to think through the role money plays in their lives. 

• A lot of important work does not pay well.

• Adventure is a celebration of life.

• Borrowing money increases the risks that our lives will become lives of “quiet desperation.”

• The true nature underlying life often cannot be put into words, but can be felt.

• Artists are sometimes too wild to fit well in society until they are dead, and no longer a threat to the established order of things.

• A thinking person must avoid sharing their philosophy of life with those who avoid thinking.

Nature, and The Human Connection to the Natural World

Make time for a close relationship with nature. Simple living enhances our awareness of the beauty of the natural world.

• A close relationship with the natural world leads to a close relationship to beauty.

• Knowing the science of nature is not the same has having a love of nature, and the deep rewards are in the love. Our love can be complete; our science cannot.

• Simple living contributes to an appreciation of nature. Wealth almost always detracts from a close relationship with nature.

• A close relationship to nature is a sensual relationship. Be open to beauty in all of its manifestations, including the sound of wind in the woods.

• An eye for beauty in nature is incompatible with an eye for usefulness.

• A close relationship with nature affects the entire rhythm of our lives.

• A close relationship with nature contributes to happiness in life.

• A close relationship with nature enhances one’s youthfulness.

• A close relationship with nature is, in part, a spiritual relationship.

• A close relationship with nature must be based on frequent contact. 

• Solitude in nature can enhance our relationship to nature.

• Nature does not observe man’s laws, just as man does not observe nature’s laws.

• A close relationship with nature requires serenity.

• We are separate from nature, but we are of nature.

• We need nature to be whole. We need to be in it, but we also need to know it exists without us, wild and free.

Spiritual Existence in a Spiritual Universe

A spiritual life is a life of openness to mystery and profound experiences rather than a life of clear answers.

• Our spiritual lives depend on our willingness to accept ambiguity. We have fewer answers than we think we do. A spiritual life requires an open mind.

• We must be open to the light.

• A spiritual life requires calm.

• A spiritual life requires an acceptance of infinity in all of its manifestations.

• Life is mysterious, and from time-to-time life will offer us a profound experience of its mystery.

• Meditate on eternity. Meditate on death.

Walking

Frequent walks in the woods can bring peace and serenity to a human life.

• Daily walks in nature can, over the years, lead to enduring friendships with big trees.

• Walking in nature and being open to the beauty around us is an art.

• Walking builds a friendship with our own self.

• Walking builds health.

• Walking builds spirit and inner strength.

Wisdom, Truth, Solitude, Simplicity

Wisdom and simplicity are closely related.

• A life of wisdom is a life of simplicity, independence, magnanimity, and trust.

• A life of wisdom must be a practical life.

• A life of wisdom is unhurried and based on great things rather than petty fears or pleasures.

• A life of wisdom has an absence of complexity and desperation.

• Truth is complex and often unpleasant.

• Wisdom is often considered heresy. Institutions condemn that which threatens them.

• True poetry is ultimately about ultimate truths.

• The tendency is to sacrifice our lives for unnecessary comfort.

• More possessions than necessary make life unnecessarily complicated.

• The experience of shortage is more likely to lead to wisdom in life than the experience of surplus.

• It is more difficult to live wisely than to know wisdom. Because none of us, even the wisest, is perfect, living wisely tends to be intermittent.

• Wisdom in others is often difficult to discern.

Relations With Oneself

The path of joy is knowing who you are and living it. It requires befriending yourself.

• We create our own reality, and our inner life profoundly affects that reality.

• Adversity helps us understand ourselves.

• It is difficult to be who we are; it is difficult to know who we are.

• Make time for dreams—dreams determine who we become.

• Live your dreams, not the dreams of others.

• A close relationship with yourself requires a time commitment, including a commitment to time spent in solitude.

• Art and poetry evolve out of a close relationship with oneself, including one’s moods.

• A friendship with yourself includes treating your time on this earth as precious.

• Sadness is part of a life well-lived.

Inner Peace, Leisure, Serenity, Silence, Time

A peaceful and serene life requires making time for silence. The rhythm you adopt in your life will affect it, for good or ill, in profound ways.

• An appreciation of beauty requires serenity.

• Leisure and reflection are important parts of a good life; leisure is a subversive idea.

• A close relationship with oneself requires time spent in silence.

• Avoid the news. In essence, it never changes, it is rarely good, and it even more rarely contributes anything really good to your life. It is mostly about politicians and business leaders who lead poisoned lives living out insecurities and the resulting craving for status.

• Pay attention to the silence.

Heron Dance principles:

Heron Dance is both a business and a work of love. It has objectives that transcend making money. There are five overriding principles that guide Heron Dance as a business:

• Work with integrity.

• Do work that is beautiful.

• Do work that contributes something meaningful to the lives of others.

• Heron Dance needs to survive as a business, and so, with integrity as the first rule, needs also to market effectively. I study the opportunities in emerging technologies, in particular opportunities presented by on-line platforms. Those platforms would create their own compelling content if they could; they’d rather not deal with artists.