I watched “A Complete Unknown” this weekend. There’s a scene that comes after Bob Dylan completed a new album cover(Like a Rolling Stone) and is getting ready to play at his second Folk Festival in two years. The management does not want him to play his new music with his electric guitar (not folk enough, opposed to acoustic). Dylan asks what defines Folk. In the movie renown Folk/Country singer Johnny Cash also at folk festival encourages him to “get mud on the carpet”. In other words, don’t be afraid to make mess. Dylan plays his new album including what would eventually be an all time great hit which would catapult Dylan into new stratosphere in terms of pop culture success, ‘Like a Rolling Stone’. The crowd is booing and his management team are going nuts. Dylan stays poised despite the rejection all around him, continuing to sing his heart out. What is right and what is wrong here can be easily argued in either direction. Beyond the surface of the “definable” or “known” is the artists quest to “find out” — “so to explore the unknown” to discover what’s in his heart will resonate with others. The artist is more interested in testing boundaries, then remaining in the constructs defined by society. The construct becomes a machine. Machines are predictable, repetitive and redundant. The artist feels most alive in the revolt against the machine, to find out what is really true. The artist will test “his truth” meaning what he believes to be true with the “truth” – meaning the actual truth. There’s other way to find out, other than through action, expression such as in Dylan’s case his new album in front of a crowd that expects the same old album. The artist wants to find out if what he believes in his heart will resonate with others. There’s a distance there between his what’s in his heart, which defines his individuality – and how it lands with others. IF it doesn’t land the artist will face defeat from loss of connection. IF it lands its the greatest drug ever experienced. In that distance between defeat and victory is a great mystery. The greater the heart, the more love and exhilaration in the mystery. The lesser the heart, the more fear and paralysis. Where many avoid the “void”, the great artist on the other hand understands its through and in the void that he can discover untapped parts of himself. A great heart will give courage to explore the void. Life is about experience all of yourself (not just parts), which is where authenticity and originality flower. A machine is a resemblance of the past and the past offers security and a familiar place. But nothing original can flower. The artist attains liberation from the past, by moving into the unknown.
Steve K.
REWILD teacher and owner.
