Most of us are concerned only with conventional language, the words and meanings of our particular culture. It’s the language we use day-to-day, which is of course necessary to make a living and to communicate with our friends and neighbors. But symbolic language, the language of our ancestors, remains the native tongue of the human race. It’s the dialect of our myths and our dreams, and it's at the heart of our best poetry and our most significant fiction, and it’s as essential to us as water.
Pretty much anyone can tell a story with a beginning, middle, and end. You don't need to be an artist to perform that trick. What matters is the language you speak. Who exactly is your audience and what precisely are you trying to communicate?
Are you merely trying to snatch some recognition, impress your friends, put a few bucks in your pocket? Or are you actually willing to crawl on your belly through steep, dark, tunnels, across jagged rocks? Ask yourself: are your prepared to climb over the dry pale bones of the dead in order to paint your hand-print on the wall of an isolate cave?
And if so, then what are you waiting for?
- Bt
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