If You Were Brave

If You Were Brave

Here, I write a very lofty, albeit short, idea-conglomerate for those who wish they had more courage, more intentionality, more purpose, or all three. If you can make it to the end, good for you. If you can’t, it’s not because I didn’t warn you.

The first premise: the world is created through a series of causes and effects.

The creator--in this case you--wields causes to produce the effects desired (or not desired). Because the world is made of causes and effects, the creator--still you, in this case--is also a result of a series of causes and effects. You cannot help what effects shaped you but you can choose how to shape others. If you prefer a temporal illustration: you can’t change the past but the future is yours.

The material you have to work with when creating your reality, as the premise suggest is possible, and which later I will assert is always the case, is as follows:

-the causes that created you

-the effects of the causes that created you

-the causes you choose to create

-the effects of the causes you created

These are the tools of every human’s trade. Everyone craftsperson, without exception, has these tools. I would assert that these tools belong to the craftsperson even after their death, but that is for another article.

The second premise: everything causes an effect; there is nothing that cannot cause an effect.

You may think, at times, that you are not making anything. Perhaps you are asleep. Or swept up in the mundanity of your daily routine. You may think that the title “creator” does not apply to you unless you mean for it to. But it does apply, and it applies at all times. Even when you think you are doing nothing, you are still having an effect--creating an effect essentially. But you are not doing so with intentionality if you do not believe you are doing it at all. Whatever effect you have on the creation of someone else, it is without intentionality.

The third premise: unintentionality is a creative choice.

Whether you were created as a result of unintentionality does not mandate your decision to create unintentionally.To be lackadaisical about the effect you have on others and on the world is a decision you make and keep making. It is your aesthetic. It is your legacy. When you lack the courage required to be intentional about the effect you have, you not only discount any intentionality with which you were created, you deem the creation of others to be unimportant.

The fourth premise: creative courage is not only for you.

The courage required to intentionally craft the effects you cause will make the world better. The courage you refuse to seek will not mean you create nothing; it will mean you create poorly. It will mean you create carelessly. But the courage you choose to have may result in the occasional mistake. After all, intentions are only the beginning of the process and don’t represent the entirety of it. Therefore, even with the courage to try, you may fail in your intended purpose and you may cause unwanted or unexpected effects.

It may serve you to remember the act of incorporating courage is a cause in itself. It will have its own effect. The act of equipping your intentionality--even if you ultimately fail at your creative goal--is a cause in itself. It will have its own effect.

If being a non-creator is a non-option (and being a creator is your only option), then I pose to you this question: what kind of creator will you be?