There is a monotony, a repetition, to life, to nature, as the poet Guillaume Apollinaire once wrote. It is part of what might be called one of those "unpleasant aspects of life."1 It needs to be given the clothing of meaning, purpose, activity for the inner and outer man. Part of this clothing is the plotting, the description, the characterization, the analysis, of the epoch. This is partly the function of art, partly religion. This is the purpose of the creative and performing arts and the efforts of individual pioneers in their several fields. No matter how beautiful and extensive the clothing of the vision, for the Baha'i artist, it is in some ways, a burden, since it is not in sync with others. It is accompanied by an inner turmoil and a degree of fragmentation of being, a fragmentation bordering on utter existential confusion at times.2 -Ron Price with thanks to 1Baha'u'llah, Tablets, Haifa, 1978, p.175; and 2Anne Atkinson, "The Dilemma of the Artist," The Creative Circle, Kalimat Press, Los Angeles, 1989, p.67. You go from weariness to desire and back and forth again and you stand alone for years on a path no one else has gone, or so it often seems, as you enter into the abyss of yourself with that reckless courage, you find a depth of identity and understanding, part of the cultivation of your soul. And there is an aching, an angst, that takes you deeper, plays with light and shadow, turmoil and resolution, but mostly you know of a spiritual longing to create, a sense of being 'called up.' Ron Price 20 January 2002
