THERE IS NO GOAL

The actual value of anything is hard to define. That answer might change depending on who you are, your values, and your life goals. What if you don’t necessarily have a goal? Our society tends to focus on results, not the journey. But the truth is not all things need to be judged like this, and I agree art is one of them. “What is your goal with the show?” I have heard this question plenty of times throughout my career. And I am reminded of a poem from Billy Collins that I like called “Introduction to Poetry”:

I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide

or press an ear against its hive.

I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,

or walk inside the poem's room
and feel the walls for a light switch.

I want them to waterski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author's name on the shore.

But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.

They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.

Certain things don’t need a goal but exist by the simple act of experiencing them. What each person sees in that experience is the goal, and that is entirely out of the author's control. Many days, like today, I wake up understanding that we would all be better if more things had less defined goals. So, here is a poem I wrote entitled “Like Before” I wrote during the creative process of The Hope Theory:

I try, and I fail

And that is just fine.

I am still here

Like before

Waiting for the wind to blow

At the right time

In the right direction

Whispering in my hear

The right words

For me to say. 

Alone with my thoughts

I can only wait for the wind 

To bring the answer.

What if the time is never right?

Or the words are the wrong ones?

But they can never be wrong 

Because they are just words

Right?

I try again. 

I fail again.

And I am just fine.

This is not my time

This is not my wind.