Line Drawings

Hey there.

I never intended to take such a long break from blogging. And no, that’s not an apology–just a statement of fact.

I’ve been doing a lot of work “under the hood,” so to speak. I wanted, as any card-carrying (recovering) perfectionist does, to wait until everything was shiny and complete and in its proper place, and only then pull back the curtain to show you everything I’m up to.

But one benefit of being a recovering perfectionist is that it’s taking me less and less time to realize the futility of this pattern every time it shows up. So here I am again, unready and imperfect and writing. ‘Nuff said.

Now, here’s an extended metaphor for you. You’ve heard the one that says “life is art,” right? Well, for the sake of making a point, let’s equate life with the fine arts for a moment. Drawing, painting, sculpting–that sort of thing.

(Yes, I have problems with the term “fine arts,” too. It implies other types of art aren’t fine. Or maybe aren’t even art. That’s a whole other subject. For today, please just stick with me for the sake of the analogy.)

What is, arguably, the most basic and important skill in the fine arts?

Line drawing.

If you’re drawing, that’s what the art is, full stop. The lines you create are the artwork.

If you’re painting, you’ll probably sketch at least some basic lines, to block out the main areas of your canvas.

If you’re sculpting or working in three dimensions in some other way, it’s also likely you’ll do some two-dimensional sketching first, just to rough out your idea.

Now what is, arguably, the most basic and important skill in living your life as art?

Line drawing.

Life needs boundaries to exist.

You are more than just a body, but you need that body to get around the world and effect change. Until the human species evolves a whole lot further, your body is a very necessary physical boundary.

A river without banks becomes a thin wash of water flooding across the land. No direction, no power, no focus.

A reservoir can hold that precious water, containing it in one place so that it’s available when we truly need it most.

It’s easy to feel hemmed in, restricted, by the lines of our lives. We often forget how much these restrictions can empower us.
Containers empower us.

Lines empower us.

They empower us by concentrating and channeling us. Like the reservoir. And the river.

One problem of modern-day life, as I see it, is that we don’t draw enough lines around our lives. We spread ourselves much too thin, and our power and focus dissipate, allowing us much less impact than we could otherwise have.

Another problem is how we tend to want to overfill our containers. So much stuff. So many commitments. So much we think we need to be and have and do.

What if we were to sketch out a few lines in the works-in-progress of our lives and say, “There, that’s enough for now”? To draw some lines in the sand and take a stand for the integrity of our boundaries?

A clearly delineated path takes away other options and directs our steps toward our goals.

A full container feels full no matter how small it is.

Just some things to think about.

Tagged as: boundaries, goals, self-awareness