Corporate Social Review Magazine 1st Quarter 2012 | Page 67

Review ART REVIEW REVIEW Our dreaming world and the butterfly effect – Sam Alwyn M y infatuation with art began when I was 6 years old. I loved watching my Nanna paint flowers and scenes from holiday destinations. I liked the way colors combined, miraculously bringing to life the subject she was portraying. I intuitively connected with her inner vision and delighted at being bestowed a sheet of paper and pencil for being confined indoors due to inclement weather. “Here child, draw grandpa reading his paper.” This prompted an inborn yearning for artistic expression. Even though the overly-wrinkled drawing of my grandfather made the family chortle, I was proud of my first masterpiece and decided that art was my future. It seems appropriate to draw a parallel of my life’s philosophy on Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s classic work on how to achieve happiness. In this work he describes “flow” as a state of being where we transform the meaningless through creativity and total involvement into a state of joy. So many people don’t know what brings them happiness. They are perpetually on the run, or spend idle hours in traffic or in supermarket queues. Their sullen facial expression speaks volumes; pokerfaced and unapproachable. Ours is an automaton society that snubs beggars and adheres to a mundane homeoffice-play-home routine. For most striving to become financially independent is no longer a challenging pursuit; instead people are disillusioned and lack purpose in life. The sight of a young man who had obviously fallen on bad times inspired me to write this poem: We all need to regularly take stock of our life and reflect on what brings us happiness, how we can help others in need. A positive attitude is like a magnet; it attracts good things to enrich our life and make a difference to society. People who have influence and power can make a huge difference in how things turn out. I remember when apartheid was in its last days the question was whether change would be peaceful or not. I tend to think of our global issues in a similar way: how complex do we want to make our future? We all have a responsibility to be part of a new dream to create change. What change can you create that will revolutionize your life, society and the planet? Contact Details for Sam Aylwin: [email protected], www.samaylwin.com www.flickr.com/photos/samwyn Dreams of man I heard the words so eloquently spoke float like bubbles on a battlefield and drift like the dreams that we cannot hear go pop on the works of man. and drift like the dreams that we cannot hear go pop on the works of man. Ooooh....I smelled the walk you sat in while getting drunk I saw your 9 to 5 to jive to pay the rent to the painted splats upon your pants like the life time you hadn’t spent upon your face the treasured time through those bloated blue eyes yell I am a child! and I hoped Aaaa...... stole a glance to catch your face to keep you there to refuge a while longer aaah.... the salary of flesh all around as normal as the day to day that’s everyday what do they know, what do they know about the dreams they cannot hear go pop on the works of man. You left I hoped still a child going pop on the dreams of man 65 CORPORATE SOCIAL REVIEW