Ratio and Proportion

My attention was called to “ratio” as I read through the second chapter of Leonard Shlain’s book,  Art and Physics.

The Greeks used ratio as reason, logic and causality.  The Latin “ratio” refers to proportion.

I am thinking about ratio and proportion in terms of time management and the new priority of following my dreams and developing my ideas over the old priority of physical order.

There is room for both, but the true priority to my mind is personal development and expression of ideas.

Naturally, I want these to take place in an orderly environment.

The order of the environment which best supports my development of ideas, is access to lots of books at once, access to lots of materials at once, and access to whatever space is needed to create these ideas.

So my priority environment may look messy to someone else, but it feels great to me because I can see where to access the fabric, drawing materials, and notebooks where I record new ideas that are flowing and sometimes rushing in, demanding to be given life.

When this priority need is fulfilled, I can then turn my attention to my physical environment outside of my studio, and I can cook, cleaning up as I change projects, move to an occasional cleaning project in another room, always returning to my creative endeavors.

I consider this a luxurious life, but I wonder if this is really so.

If my creative ideas are the best I can offer society and civilization, then shouldn’t my life be focused on that?  Let other things take second or third or fourth place.

I am happier and more fulfilled.

I am contributing happiness to society in the form of my feeling plus the added values and advantages of what I am creating.

That makes other people happy as well.

I like Bhutan’s Gross National Happiness (GNH) much more than the US Gross National Product (GNP).

Things and products for their own sake, not as expressions of ideals and values, have only cluttered up the environment, whereas happiness keeps it and us in much better balance.

© 2014 Kathryn Hardage

www.InspiredPractices.com