16. The Process Of Creation Advances

The task of creation is always unfinished. From every newly crafted thing, a new arrangement of meanings emerges, and from that, new possibilities appear. New possibilities beget new questions, and something further must be created in response.

As the process of creation advances, meanings become more detailed and questions become more nuanced. The target of these questions cannot ever be reached. It is the heart of our experience as living beings, as entities that are both subject and object. It is perhaps even the heart of existence itself. To attempt to name it necessarily fails, because it is everything and nothing at the same time. All that we can do is to create and create again and, through our creations, uncover as much of it as we possibly can.

Though our creations fail to reach the ultimate, they help us experience the world differently and, through this effect, we grow more aware. It is by experiencing more, by being more, that we become aware of more. The endlessness of our task produces despair when we realize that our wish for completion, for totality, will not be achieved by our individual selves. But the other side of this despair is the joy of exploration, which takes us ever further towards the thing we cannot name.

Joy arises from the activity, the making, the doing. We grow and change by fulfilling our task, by extending ourselves through acts of creation, and the experience of this process is the source of joy.

That our lives are finite means nothing. That we will not see the end means nothing. That we will not know the ultimate means nothing. We are part of a great and endless project, and our part is as valuable as any other.

It is in recognition of our task that we offer ourselves and our creations to you.