Pause A Moment

Eric Hoffer understood that our demand for immediate gratification in all things undermines our creative human potential. He points out that the action that occurs instantly is "characteristic of the animal world, where action follows perception with the swiftness of a chemical reaction."

Man, on the other hand, is a defective animal. It is because man had to compensate for his lack of inborn skills and sharp instincts that he became a creator.

"In man," Eric Hoffer writes, "because of his rudimentary instincts, there is a pause of faltering and groping, and this pause is the seedbed of images, longings, forebodings and irritations which are the warp and woof of the creative process."

It is the pause that matters most. Hoffer quotes Peter Ulich in order to underline the social and creative significance of the pause:

"Rarely is anything more important for the rise of civilization than the human capacity to put an interval between stimulus and action. For within this interval grow deliberation, perspective, objectivity--all the higher achievements of the reflective mind."

In other words, creativity is dependent upon "the damming up of impulses and cravings." By however much we act immediately on our impulses, by so much do we fall short of our creative human potential.

On the other hand, a lengthening of the pause between desire and action increases the likelihood of a truly creative response.

A lengthening of the pause may open the door to creativity, but only hard work will bring our talents to fruition. Hoffer had little faith in spontaneity and inspiration as the driving forces behind a great achievement. "Creative people believe in hard work," he writes. "At the core of every genuine talent there is an awareness of the effort and difficulties inherent in any achievement, and the confidence that by persistence and patience something worthwhile will be realized."

Hoffer also wryly added that "it needs great effort to make an achievement seem effortless."

The Times They Are A Changing

It is probably true that most people dislike change.

However, what people are usually referring to when they say that they do not like change is that they do not like change for the worse. Rather than risking change that may have a negative impact on their lives, they resist change of any kind.

Unfortunately, in seeking safety in the "status quo," these people often sacrifice change for the better as well.

What's more, change is happening all the time and much of it is not in our control. Ultimately, it is how we respond to change that is going to determine our attitude toward life.

Most of us respond enthusiastically to positive change--a higher paying job, a new romantic partner, an improvement in our health, etc. It is the unpleasant changes in our lives that pose a challenge. 

Whether or not we heed the admonition to "do as a wise man should and prepare for ill and not for good," I have found the following suggestions helpful for navigating the turbulent waters of unexpected change:

• Hope for a better future. Hope can steel the human spirit when faced with challenging circumstances. It is important to remember that all change is transitory and that, if you play your cards right, you will have statistics on your side that things will improve.

• Play your cards right. If you are going to hope for a better future, it follows that it is vital that you make the right choices in your life. Sometimes the situation will call for action. Sometimes it may require you to hunker down and weather the storm.
  

• Have an unshakable conviction in the ultimate meaning of life. It is easier to accept your fate if you intuitively know that there is an ultimate meaning to your existence.

One of the benefits of steering by these guidelines when you are faced with unwelcome change is that you will grow more confident in your ability to handle whatever challenges the future holds for you. You will learn to sense the possibilities in change--even in change for the worse.

In other words, to paraphrase the poet William Ernest Henley, you will be the master of your fate and the captain of your soul.

Pastimes

A nostalgic view of the past is a consolation prize given to those who did not have the awareness to appreciate the event when it was actually happening.

A Job To Be Done

Eric Hoffer noted that man is an unfinished animal and that we become fully human when we channel the nature that is within us into a creative effort.

Theodore Dreiser also commented on this peculiarity of the human condition:

Our civilization is still in a middle stage, scarcely beast, in that it is no longer wholly guided by instinct; scarcely human, in that it is not yet wholly guided by reason.

Dreiser pointed out that since man separated himself from nature he lost forever the automatism that is the chief characteristic of the denizens of the jungle:

On the tiger no responsibility rests. We see him aligned by nature with the forces of life - he is born into their keeping and without thought he is protected. We see man far removed from the lairs of the jungles, his innate instincts dulled by too near an approach to free-will, his free-will not sufficiently developed to replace his instincts and afford him perfect guidance.

As our technology tames the nature without, we are confronted by the challenge of conquering the nature within us--and there is always the danger that we will revert to savagery. Dreiser understood the precarious position of humanity:

In this intermediate stage he wavers - neither drawn in harmony with nature by his instincts nor yet wisely putting himself into harmony by his own free-will.

Dreiser also understood that the fate of man hangs in the balance:

We have the consolation of knowing that evolution is ever in action, that the ideal is a light that cannot fail. He will not forever balance thus between good and evil.

Eric Hoffer insisted that if history has any meaning, it lies in man's struggle to break free from nature and to become a being apart. For only then will man fulfill his spiritual destiny. Dreiser was in full accord with this view when he insisted that man's true calling is to win the internal battle against nature:

When this jangle of free-will and instinct shall have been adjusted, when perfect understanding has given the former the power to replace the latter entirely, man will no longer vary. The needle of understanding will yet point steadfast and unwavering to the distant pole of truth.”

We still have work to do. Nature will not give up so easily. Let us set our hearts and minds to the task before us. Eric Hoffer knew that the "dark destructive forces released by affluence can serve to fuel the creative process." Let us then fulfill our creative destiny and become fully human.

Open and Closed Case

Skepticism opens the door to truth. Cynicism closes it.

A Private Study

All men's miseries derive from not being able to sit in a quiet room alone.—Blaise Pascal

This is a curious statement. If true, one would think that all that was required of a person who was seeking happiness was to retire to his or her study and close the door.

But Pascal knew better:

Man finds nothing so intolerable as to be in a state of complete rest, without passions, without occupation, without diversion, without effort. Then he feels his nullity, loneliness, inadequacy, dependence, helplessness, emptiness.

He also knew that adolescent youth, in particular, have little interest in contemplation:

Anyone who does not see the vanity of the world is very vain himself. So who does not see it, apart from young people whose lives are all noise, diversions, and thoughts for the future?

But take away their diversion and you will see them bored to extinction. Then they feel their nullity without recognizing it, for nothing could be more wretched than to be intolerably depressed as soon as one is reduced to introspection with no means of diversion.

Pascal's insight is a window into our insane and absurd society. The frenetic hustling, the hedonistic pursuit of pleasure, the mass spectacle, and the limitless diversions and distractions suggest that all men and women are desperately seeking to escape the existential vacuum within by filling their lives with noise and empty amusements.

Perhaps it is true as Eric Hoffer wrote in The True Believer that "we can never have enough of that which we really do not want, and that we run fastest and farthest when we run from ourselves."

Of course, if we run, our prison runs with us.

If I had any recommendation for someone tired of the "endless treadmill," I would recommend that he follow Henry David Thoreau's advice and "Explore thyself."

So enter your study and close the door and invite the Truth back into your life.

But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.—Matthew 6:6