TED ANKARA COLLEGE / 9-O
A Rose by any Other Shade
Öykü Melis Özengüneş
Inspiration is a funny thing .
There isn ’ t a single creature on Earth who would disagree , not one who hasn ’ t said so themselves . We all know too well the feeling of search , running your mind through rainbows and starshine , waterfalls , mountains , statues , anything . We never learn ! We are told these things are beautiful , and that we ought to chase beauty , and yet we never learn .
A secret no one lets us in is that inspiration isn ’ t fond of the grand . Monuments , castles , tapestries … These are the homes of beauty , and beauty is a demanding mistress . So inspiration isn ’ t fond of the grand . Inspiration burrows from the mundane , from curiosities rather than wonders , from small delights rather than great pleasures . It lives in the song lyric running circles in your brain , in the magpie couple you watched adorning their nest with ribbon , in the small quirks of a friend ’ s handwriting and the shape of the mud on your boots following an afternoon in a forest .
Beauty won ’ t admit this , of course . Beauty strives to hypnotize you into forgetting her roots . She is ashamed that she has not always been what she is , and she strives to dazzle her past into non-existence .
She is the swan rejecting the ugly duckling . Look , she cries , at my effortless elegance : I have always been this way , I will always be this way ; and if her vessel surrenders its perfection to time , she leaves without a thought .
And oh , where does that leave us the creatives , who are we but the servants of beauty ? To chase after her as she flits from place to place , following faithfully as she briefly possesses what art our shaking hands can make ?
And so , we tire . She is not an efficient mistress : Demanding , intolerant … Our labour is so extensive at times that we feel it can never be justified ; and so , we tire .
It is only when we lay , slumped , exhausted yet empty without a task to chase , that inspiration casts her hand on our shoulder ; and oh , what a healing touch it is !
... And we trust ourselves , if we can , to our feet , and we once more unsheathe our bristled tools , and , together , we chase beauty .