What is the Purpose of Art?

Hey all! Sorry for the long time between this post and my last post- school caught up with me. I've decided to just go in order of the chapters in Soul Pancake, partly because I'm too ordered and structured to do it any other way, and partly because the next chapter is Art and Creativity, which I'm pretty excited for. So, here we go!

From "Art & Creativity" section of "Soul Pancake":

What is the purpose of art? What is art? What piece of art most speaks to you? How does knowing the intention behind a work of art affect your experience of it?

First off, let me say that I am by no means an expert in art. In fact, I actually know very little (especially when it comes to the visual arts).

Soul Scribble

From "The Brain & The Soul" section of "Soul Pancake":

Visualize your soul for a moment. Now scribble, sketch, or rip up those old magazines you have lying around, and create your take on what your soul "looks" like.

Ok, so I'm not very artistic. And I ESPECIALLY can't draw, so I decided to make a collage. Basically, I sort of had an idea of different images that might be part of my soul (I used the list of things that re-charge my soul that I made in an earlier post to help with this). Then I went through magazines and through google images to get some things that I thought would sort of describe parts of my soul, and still look sort of good together.  This is the end result. This is by no means a complete picture of my soul, of course. I like to think of it as a little snippet of my soul. Or like, maybe a snapshot! Anyway, here's the finished collage:

Soul Songs #3

This post's soul song is called "Rock and Roll" by Eric Hutchinson.

Unlike the previous two soul songs, this song doesn't immediately conjure up soothing images of country lanes and streams and such. I like this song because it's just so laid back and chill. It's such a fun, upbeat song. It can brighten my mood pretty well.

I love listening to this song

Re-define Spirituality

From "The Brain & The Soul" section of "Soul Pancake"

So this is a new one, ya'll. That is, this is one of the activities in the book that I haven't posted about yet. So here's a quick explanation of it: Soul Pancake gives you a word. The one I'm posting about today is "spirituality". The book gives you standard definitions and synonyms of that word.

Tell me Now!

From "The Brain&The Soul" section of "Soul Pancake":

Tell me Now! List five questions that you hate not having the answers to.

1. When will I find true love?
2. Am I choosing the right career?
3. Will I be financially stable in the future?

Soul Songs #2

Sorry that it has been so long since my last update! The next few activities in the book are all ones that are going to require a good deal of thought, and I've been so busy that I haven't been able to get around to them
:(  But I will soon! But for now, here's my next soul song: "Fables" by the Dodos

This song just makes me picture strolling down a deserted country lane,

What drains your soul? What recharges it?

From "The Brain & The Soul" section of "SoulPancake":

What drains your soul? What recharges it? What is the soul? Can you kill your soul? Does the soul have a gender?

I think that the best way to tackle this would be to start by answer the question "What is the soul?" I think we need to have a definition of what a soul actually is, before we can answer any of the other questions.

So what is the soul? I believe it's the spiritual part of us, and maybe the moral compass as well. It's the part of you that makes you feel fully alive and connected to the world (for example, when you step outside on a sunny spring day and smell the fresh air and feel the sun on your face, and just feel so peaceful and so alive and so connected to nature...that's the soul's doing). I think that the soul is

How do thoughts affect reality?

From "The Brain & The Soul" section of "SoulPancake":

How do thoughts affect reality? How does prayer affect reality? When has your mind been your worst enemy? How do you keep cynicism in check?

Well first of all, this would depend on whether we are talking about actual reality, or our own views of reality. I think that it is possible that our personal views of reality can sometimes be a little skewed from what is actually reality. And so if we are talking about our views of reality, it's obvious that those are affected by our thoughts.

People can completely change their view of the world and how they see it just by thinking. You can decide to change your attitude, and your personal reality will change. You can become a much happier or much more depressed person just by the way you view yourself and the world around you.

Soul Songs (new feature!)

So, I've decided to add a new aspect to my blog. In addition to answer the questions posed by the books (although to this point I've only used the questions from SoulPancake), and blogging my reactions to the activities (none of which I've done yet), I've decided to periodically post about a song that I'm really into at the moment. One that just makes my soul feel good.

I've actually got a playlist in my iTunes called "Soul Songs". It does not refer to the genre of music known as soul, but instead to songs that, as I've said, make my soul happy. I can have a sort of eclectic taste in music at times, so though many of the songs are singer-songwriter type songs, don't be surprised to find rock, pop, hiphop, country, broadway, and many other styles.

So anyway. The song I've been listening to today is "Country Roads" by John Denver.

Now, I've known this song, or at least parts of it, for almost as long as I can remember. When I was little, and we'd go on long trips somewhere,

What is the interplay between fate and free will?

From "The Brain & The Soul" section of "SoulPancake":

What is the interplay between fate and free will? Is it possible to influence the fate of others? When have you felt like you had no free will? What is the collective destiny of humanity?

Oh boy. Another big question. Well, for the most part, I don't believe in fate. That is, I don't believe that when you are born, you have a specific destiny about what will happen to you that you can't ever change no matter what you do. I DO believe that certain people are born into certain circumstances that are extremely difficult to rise above. For example, those who are born into extreme poverty. It is extremely difficult to rise above poverty. Poverty is a vicious cycle. Does that mean those who are born into it are necessarily doomed to it for their entire lives? No. Of course, many people do, because it is so close to impossible to break that cycle. But even though it's close, it's not impossible, and I don't believe who will and will not break that cycle is some sort of pre-determined fate.

Even with things that you feel like you have no control over, there is some sort of free will. You can choose how you react, even if only internally.

How do you reconcile discrepancies between reason and faith?

From "The Brain & The Soul" section of "SoulPancake":

How do you reconcile discrepancies between reason and faith? When has reason failed you? What do you believe strictly on faith? Does every question have an answer?

Oh boy. This is a really big question, and it's one that I would struggle with on even a normal day, but today especially I find this difficult. My mental energy is pretty low today, but I'll see what I can do with this.

So. How do you reconcile discrepancies between reason and faith? Hmmm. Well. First I think I should start with what I believe. I don't believe in any certain "faith"...or, I should say, organized religion, which is usually what people imagine when then think of faith. What I believe in is a god (some sort of higher power). I don't believe we can every really know what this god is and what it wants from us. But I do believe there is some sort of connecting power, connecting us all. It sounds silly when I type it out, because I am a person who likes to have reasoning for everything, and I don't really have much of a reason for my faith.

How do you determine truth?

SoulPancake is split up into different sections, and the first section is called "The Brain & The Soul". The first page of this section is a question:

How do you determine truth? What is truth? Does truth evolve? What's one thing you know for sure?

(Note: The main question is "How do you determine truth?" Then there are "Dig deeper" supplementary questions that follow, and those questions are "What is truth? Does truth evolve? What's one thing you know for sure?" From now on, my format will be this: The main question first, and probably as the title of the post, and the supplementary questions following.)

I don't think it's always possible to determine truth.  There are somethings that we will probably never know. For example, is there a god? I believe so, but I can't prove it to be true. I can't prove it to NOT be true, either. For some questions, there's just no way of knowing whether or not it is true.

Becoming Inspired

So, part of this is the task of getting myself inspired. I decided that a good way to start this whole thing was by surrounding myself with things that inspire me. So today, I went through the two books and picked out the quotes that most inspire me. I then typed them up, printed them, cut them out, put them on colorful paper, and taped them up all over my room. I also created a playlist of songs that seem to put me in the sort of mood I need for this kind of thing. These weren't in the books, but I felt like these two activities would be a good way to get myself in the right mindset and help me along my journey.

I don't think I'm going to type up all the songs on my list, but here are the quotes:


"Don't say you don't have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Louis Pasteur, Michaelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein"  -H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

SoulPancake and Where Will You Be Five Years From Now?

I figured a good way to start would be with descriptions of the books I'm using for this project. Well, I'm not sure if "project" is the right word for this. To me, a project is something you start and then finish. What I'm starting is something that will be lifelong. But anyway, descriptions of the books. Right. Well, SoulPancake
started as a website, www.soulpancake.com (my username is bethcapstick, look me up if you join the website!) It was creator by actor Rainn Wilson (best known for playing Dwight Schrute on NBC's "The Office"). Basically, they have questions posted, and then the site users can answer those questions with their thoughts. Here's the description given on the website:

What is SoulPancake? Well, it’s more of a mission than a Web site...

We want to make discussions about Spirituality, Creativity, and Philosophy cool again. Were they ever cool? I have no idea. But it seems like a good idea. We want to engage the user to “Chew on Life’s Big Questions”™. (I was kidding about the ™ symbol; you can use that phrase however you want. Even to sell frozen taquitos.) Where do you go on the Interwebs if you want an irreverent, fun, and profound take on God and Art and the Soul and Faith and Beauty? Fox.com? Maybe. But maybe also here at SoulPancake.com.