Game on . . .

 

I have been black and blue in some spot, 

somewhere, almost all my life 

from too intimate contacts 

with my own furniture.

-- Frank Lloyd Wright

I came across this quote recently and have absolutely no idea about the context of it, although I know a fair amount about Frank Lloyd Wright.  I know there were substantial control-freak issues, for instance.  So we understand each other in some fundamental ways.

But no matter what the circumstance that inspired his words, 

I am glad to have found this idea on its own.  

It immediately brought to mind the image of an artist banging his head against his own work.  Or his hands.  Or his heart.  Because I know too well that sometimes creating feels a little like mortal combat.

Which can result in bruises.


There can be pain in the most physical sense, of course -- some of my fingertips were like hamburger throughout my quilting years, for instance -- but there's also the psychic pain of trying so hard to say a thing and yet not quite being able to master the art of your communication.

The maddening stutter and stammer 

of trying to get it out.

I can't imagine how many times an artist has read a review of their work and thought, "They didn't understand what I was trying to say at all.  They missed the entire point."

Like when people glance at my work and say, "Cute.  But I don't have kids." 

That's when I know we have a failure to communicate.  So I try again.

The difference between the right word 

and the almost right word 

is the difference between lightning 

and a lightning bug.

-- Mark Twain

Twain chose just the right word so often, it's difficult to believe there were many he missed.


In fact, looking at a complete (and extensive) body of work such as Wright's or Twain's, it's a little hard to imagine that they didn't always get it right without too much struggle.

Because such work seems to have always been -- hanging like part of an ongoing conversation, ready for the world to hear and understand it immediately and completely.

Waiting for us all to just nod our heads and think, "Exactly."


I'm going to take Frank Lloyd Wright's quote as something of a confession, and find some comfort in the idea that there was a bit of a battle sometimes before he got it exactly the way he wanted it to be.

And then of course 
try to go the distance
in my own fight.