Free-for-all

Why did you turn the picture?

Because, like many, I read from left to right

When you look, you mustn't just see the picture

You should see what it does, how it feels, what it does to you

And wonder how, and why

The picture was made by a person, and we are persons

We differ from other persons in many ways, of course

But we remain, every one, persons

We are eccentric primates with odd minds, dying

Every one of us, existing in this way, in this world;

Sometimes, we are moved to create representations

Of what that is like, like the picture

We create representations for all sorts of reasons

Using all sorts of tools and techniques

Not just paint and brushes but words on a page or a screen

Music, architecture, sculpture--you get the idea

These are representations of something's effects

On a person just like us

Suppose that person has never thought to themselves

What am I representing, how, why, and whom do I serve?

Myself alone? My patron? Some deity or other? An idea?

The customer--what a whore you would become, eh?

We must think about what we are doing

Just as we think about what others have done

Minds leave traces of themselves

Minds can find them

How would the picture seem to you

If it had been made by your father?

What would you see, if it was the work

Of your child

Or someone who had harmed your child?

The representation must be legible

In fact, if it is especially skillful, it will make reading joyful

Every detail of it will rub the careful reader fondly

It will caress your heart and slap your cheek

It will defy your expectations

And make you wish that you could dwell there, always

Somewhere warm and redolent of dangerous excitement

Free of what is conventional, familiar, correct, obedient

It will give you a taste of the ambrosia of being a thinking being

With a cinematic imagination, a refined palate and real perspicacity

And no debts of any kind

That being will know all of the tricks

And when you invent a new one, it will give that being an orgasmic thrill

If you can allow that being to understand something that being did not understand before that being saw your picture or heard your song or admired your sculpture or scrolled past your terribly embarrassing and slightly fascistic TikTok video

If that being understands beauty, or truth, or goodness from a fresh perspective

If that being laughed loudly in front of other beings, in spite of themselves

Because the maker of the representation thought: "Fuck it. I probably shouldn't, but I will!"

And showed that being something that being can't quite believe

Because that being likes it so much

If that being finally gets the picture

Well, that is the real, passionate kiss one educated mind gives another

You will be educated when you realize that there is always another way

To turn the picture, to consider things again, even if they are familiar

In fact, especially if they are

As if you have just bumped into them somewhere

And realized

Oh, you're here too

You are so many

I thought you were always one

Love, death, honor, duty, pain, pleasure

Aching nostalgia, malignant betrayal

Faith, hope, charity

Detachment

Submission

Whatever, just show it to me again

So that I think I am dealing with a stranger

And then recognize the idea

Always turn the picture, the page, the song, the flag

Look again

You need time to figure these things out

To do them, badly, and find out how to get better

Your education should cost you nothing

You should have to work for it, though

If you haven't learned to turn the picture

You should stay where you are until you do

Creating representations and understanding them

Was our way out of the leaves

We must preserve it

We must give the best of it to everyone

Or the picture will be ugly no matter how you turn it

And no one will understand why

Or how to try to understand its shriveled beauty

Or how much of it is true

Or, if it is not good, how to change it

There ought to be a free-for-all

Educated minds, making and understanding

Until, no matter how you turn the picture

You are glad you did