The Spirit of the Creator
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Sometimes the images grow past their original boundaries. This image became far more complex than I’d planned, which is somewhat appropriate. Life is far more complex than I’d planned.
Yoda: Size matters not. Look at me. Judge me by my size, do you, hmm? And well you should not, for my ally is the Force. And a powerful ally it is. [looks around him] Life creates it. Makes it grow. Its energy surrounds us and binds us. Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter. You must feel the Force around you. Everywhere. Here, between you, me, the tree, the rock, everywhere. Yes, even between the land and the ship.
Luke Skywalker: You want the impossible. [starts to walk away]
[Yoda sighs, then concentrates on the ship. Using the Force, he raises it out of the swamp and places it safely on dry land, then looks back to Luke.]
Luke Skywalker: [astonished] I don’t believe it!
Yoda: That is why you fail.
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Ben Obi-Wan Kenobi: The Force is what gives a Jedi his power. It’s an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us. It binds the galaxy together.
George Lucas apparently did not identify with a particular belief system; however, he had studied a number of religions. The Force was intended to represent the notion of faith that exists in most of the world’s religions.
Back when dinosaurs ruled the earth, and I viewed Star Wars for the very first time, I was instantly captivated by the concept of the Force as a representation of what, three-plus years into the journey, I understood about Faith. As I have mentioned many times before, I came to my first hearing about Faith during my third year of college. I’d never darkened the door of a church prior to then. I had not been raised on the stories of the Bible, I’d never attended Sunday School. From my hearing in high school the complete performance of The Man of La Mancha, I came to an understanding that there could be something more in my life beyond the purposeless day-to-day events of my life. Life could have meaning.
There is little in Christianity that is harder to understand than the teachings about the Spirit of the Creator. During the years when I was first exploring this strange thing called Faith, I visited Pentecostal events called Revivals; in my opinion, religious circuses.
Steve Martin made a film called Leap of Faith, in which he plays a con man with a traveling ‘miracle’ tent show, presenting healings and miracles to gullible audiences in Middle America. From his perspective, he was presenting a better show than one could find in New York, with a far cheaper admission cost [donations]. He provided entertainment—until the climax of his tour occurs—a boy is actually healed during the Revival Meeting. Not a shill in the audience; the real deal. The lame walked. Like Job, when the Creator of the Universe appears before him and Job is found speechless [after dozens of chapters of speeches], Steve Martin’s character realizes that he’s ‘been found out’—he has encountered Truth. That night, he hitches a ride on an eastbound truck, leaving his crew to clean up the mess.
In college I met intelligent students from different backgrounds, who appeared to believe that when they ‘talked to the ceiling’ during times of something called ‘prayer,’ they knew that a Presence was listening; a Presence Who sometimes responded. For me, it was the stuff of science fiction or psychology—until it happened to me; and then I knew.
The above image represents the Spirit of the Creator as a rushing wind; the element of Spirituality that appears in many different forms of Faith. I’ll write more about that in Part 2. “The wind blows where it will.”
There have been many times in my life when I have known that I was in the Presence of the Spirit of the Creator. Most recently, when I made three trips to the Gulf Coast, repairing damage done by Hurricane Katrina, the Presence of the Spirit of the Creator was as palpable among us as a room filled with an invisible steam. I was in the Presence of the Spirit of the Creator one night when I represented Medical Teams International in Oaxaca, Mexico. That was in 2008. I can’t think of a time, since then, when I’ve known that I was in the Presence of the Creator; my lack of awareness doesn’t mean that the Spirit hasn’t been Present. I’ve been so focused on my own bodily challenges for the last 11 years—sometimes obsessively so—there is much I haven’t paid attention to. Over the years, I have witnessed events that were difficult to explain in any ‘non-Faith’ way; but those events haven’t been something I could describe as Presence. I call them Grace Gifts. I experience Grace Gifts in spite of my ‘dissolving’ body.
Religious people and the texts of the Church often use the phrase, “Holy Spirit” or “Holy Ghost” to represent the “Third Person of the Trinity”—a religious concept. For me, these terms imply that there is some sort of distance between myself and the Spirit of the Creator. I have come to a place where I believe the distance between my Soul—a religious concept—and the Spirit of the Creator is very small; if a distance at all. I have come to a place where I believe that the Spirit of the Creator exists within every human being; whether or not we are aware of the Spirit’s Presence. One might ask, “if the Spirit of the Creator is inside you, how can you not be aware of the Spirit’s presence?” Valid question. I can be in the same house as my wife, and not be aware that she is present. When I’m with my entire family and we are all awake, I can’t possibly believe that they are absent. When I am engrossed in a project or engrossed in an unexpected event in the life of my family, I can ignore lots of things. One of the ways that I deal with continual bodily pain is distraction. Last night/early this morning, an hour passed in ten minutes time…
Much of the Created world is not alive—rocks, cars, buildings; much of that part of Creation that is alive, is not sentient—does not appear to realize that it is alive—life just ‘is’ [of course this may also be an invention of our arrogance]. A cluster of cancer cells is alive, while in the body—the unchecked replication of cells obstructs with normal body function. The cancer shares in the life of the host; remove the cancer from its host, and it dies. To be animate is to have life.
http://www.roncobb.net/cartoons.html
a drawing that I copied in the past
There are many creatures in the world who appear to be sentient—to be aware of their lives in some fashion—and we are destroying them every day, to the point that we are causing the extinction of many of the species on earth. Our destruction of the world’s climate, our destruction of forests, our destruction of the oceans goes on, every single day, and most of the world’s population feels powerless to effect change; or simply doesn’t care.
I believe that when we die, we go Home—I have no idea how Home might be described. Biblical descriptions from thousands of years ago are, for me, simply symbolic of a ‘place’ that defies description. I believe [some would say ‘hope’] that when we arrive at Home each of us will see the scope of our lives in their true context. I don’t believe in Judgement—as in appearing before a Judge to await a sentence—I believe the Creator has known the entirety of our lives from the moment of Creation. Judgement is not required.
I FEAR that we have mistaken the ability to communicate with words we can understand with the idea of “Identity,” and we will see our part in the damage to our world. We damage the world with the food we bring home from the store, and its packaging; by the chemicals we use in maintaining the landscape. Online shopping is incredibly convenient and produces a lot of plastic we have no use for.
I believe we will also see the Grace [unmerited favor] we have brought to the world. I think that most of us will feel an extreme shame for the damage we have done. Or we will display an Arrogance that is actually a disease. I believe that the acts that induce shame will be Forgiven; I believe that Arrogance cannot be Forgiven until shame occurs.
Our interaction with the Spirit of the Creator, for the most part, is voluntary. We can be so damaged by our circumstances that we cannot even believe the Spirit exists. We can also be so shaped by our circumstances that we are able to Believe even more than seems possible. I believe that that this is one of the ways the Spirit of the Creator communicates with our Soul—the Creative Imagination. Many do not believe that the Soul even exists, because our Science cannot detect the Soul. ‘There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy’—Shakespeare
All I can say for sure, is that in the Fall of 1972, I did not believe in the Soul; by the Spring of 1973, I knew that I have a Soul. Nothing ‘magical’ happened; no ‘magic poof’. I don’t think that my Soul entered me in this period of my life; I believe that the Soul that has been within me for all of my life had been awakened in a new way.
When do we become ‘equipped’ with a Soul? This is the question at the heart of abortion debates. When does a fetus become a ‘human being’—a person? Is an 8-week old fetus that cannot sustain life outside the mother’s womb, considered a person because the fetus has a beating heart? I DO NOT KNOW.
I also believe that what happens inside a woman’s body is not the business of our Government. I believe that people who call themselves ‘pro-life,’ but do not care what happens in the child’s life after it is born, are merely ‘pro-birth’.
I don’t believe I’ll know the answer to these questions until I reach Home. My grandson is about 5 weeks old; looking at the photos taken minutes after birth, and the photos taken yesterday, I see significant changes. He is growing, he is developing, and is loved beyond his ability to understand—most of his life is involved in the ingesting of food, and the elimination of that food from one end or the other. With crying, when he is uncomfortable. It is a good thing that we don’t know about our future discomforts.
Perhaps the positive connection we make with another person is our Soul, connecting with another Soul. Perhaps that connection is a Gift from the Creator; a tangible presence of the Spirit of the Creator.
Enough of that.
- Illustration Tip #15: More on Marketing
Back when dinosaurs ruled the earth, and the internet did not exist, we needed to use print advertising to get our message out to the world. The rule of thumb at that time was that only 4% of our ads would create a response by a prospective client. To put that in a better perspective, if one sends out 199 fliers, one should not expect to receive more than 4 inquiries. If one sends out 220 fliers, one might hear from 8 prospects. The average number was an average; it wasn’t a guarantee.
According to the Netcraft January 2018 Web Server Survey there are 1,805,260,010 (over 1.8 billion) websites. Yes, the Internet is very big. However, most of those websites get almost no visitors. If I was really into marketing myself, I would tell you that “I have the formula for bringing thousands of customers to your website,” but I would be lying. There is no formula. MY guess is that the 4% number is probably still accurate.
Despite the assurances of people who want to sell you something [you are their prospect] you cannot control who visits your website. Does this mean you should not try to sell your work online? Of course not; unless you have some method of getting your art into the hands of the astute buyer.
I use three online retail outlets for selling my work: Society 6, RedBubble and Artist.com in that order. I have designs on another t-shirt site; the printing on the shirts I bought doesn’t last well in the washing machine. You should always order prints or clothing with your designs, to see the quality of the work, and to track how long it takes for the delivery of the work. Announce your work on Social Media; making sure you have links to the place[s] they can buy your work. It’s also a good idea to go to Kinko’s or FedEx Office or some similar place to print your work on paper—find out if the colors from the copy machines match the colors in your computer. If there is a discrepancy, you need to change the settings on your computer. “Monitor Gamma”
I’ve been doing this for over twenty years, starting when dinosaurs ruled the earth. I have spent tens of thousands of dollars over that time, marketing my work. For me, nothing seems to work. Or, if it does work, the people who contact me can’t remember where they saw my work. The amount of dollars does not mean that I earn tens of thousands of dollars from illustration. I’ve managed to create a huge debt load; which is the wrong way to go about this work. I just haven’t had a different choice. I bagged groceries in high school; my body won’t allow me to do it again.
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Tags: artist, Christianity, depression, faith, freelance illustration, hope, illustration, intolerance, material poverty, mental-health, Nerve Pain, Neuropathy, pain, persistence, personal excellence, Polyneuropathy, self-employment, surviving
Chronicles in Ordinary Time 
June 5, 2019 at 9:40 am
As soon as I noticed this web site I went on reddit to share some of the love with them.
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