The Bittersweet dilemma

Everybody loves candies!

It’s funny how some problems keep recurring again and again and again and again and again and again and again throughout history.

One of them is the dichotomy between doing meaningful/original/edgy/ personal/deep/unique work, and doing something more commercial/ mainstream/accessible/poppy/fun/fat n’cheesy/sweet/stuff.

In whichever discipline that you’re in. This principle applies to everything.

So I’ll call it the bittersweet dilemma.

Let’s put forth the idea everyone loves sweet stuff. Because you’re just programmed for it. Sweet is pure pleasure. But that sweet stuff makes you kinda fatter, more inflamed and is not that great for your health on the long term and you can get sick if you take too much of it. But, god does it taste good, gives you a rush of pleasure in an instant and is so addictive!

So It’s kind of either serving people what they want as instant gratification, something sweet but not that nourishing or something that they need, somewhat more bitter yet nourishing.

Spinach versus sweets is an other way to put it.

You’d think that in the thousands of years that we’d been around on this planet we’d have figured out the solution to that dilemma which almost every artist go through.

Make it bitter/nourishing or sweet/tasty?

It seems that It’s not much of a concern of the non-creators. Lucky for them.

Consumers don’t really have that problem. It’s a very creative-centric issue. Because a creative knows that there’s a realm of unlimited possibilities waiting to happen.

But among the sea of possibilities, which one is the best one?

Or a great one?

Or a good enough one?

Or a satisfying one?

Or a pleasant yet meaningful enough one?

Which one is it, damn it!!!?

And I think the dilemma is tied to our free will, life is a bittersweet symphony and we’ll never ever have an individual answer to questions of free agency.

Some of the most beautiful and most profound pieces of work are definitely in the bitterness realm. It’s the realm of truth, authenticity, meaning, it can almost have a divine aspect to it.

Think of Mozart’s Requiem as his bitter work,

and The little night music is the sweet stuff.

While the latter is the little melody that everybody remembers and kids love, the Requiem is the piece that will potentially help someone transcend a difficult time in their lives.

So It’s a tradeoff between the meaningful and meaningless.

The experience of life is the oscillation between those two extremes.

If you spend your life worrying so much about what everything means, It can be quite neurosis inducing, you’d want to unplug your brain from times to times and just let it go.

But if you spend your time always in Candyland, not worrying about what anything means and indulging your simple impulses, you might become a very shallow person with not much to say. Which can also be rather dissatisfying in some other manner. And one day your body will crave proper nourishment.

As an artist/creator the whole range is available to you. And there’s no right or wrong answer to those.

There will never be.

And in a way that’s the type of dilemma that a god (The ultimate creative guy/gal) would be faced with.

God’s Dilemma

Imagine god as a screenwriter, the screenwriter of the story We’re all cast members of. (Or maybe co-protagonists?)

If god writes only happy go lucky Teletubbies vibes.

Eventually you’d get sick to death of the same damn thing. Somehow we like novelty and Teletubies get old quickly when you get just a few weeks older.

And that’s the story of the Genesis in a nutshell. Now that you ate the fruit of knowledge (The bitter fruit), then Your life’s gonna be bitter. The truth is bitter as we say.

Eventually, you want some stories with a little more drama, more conflict, more depth, more truth. And that’s the introduction of bitterness in your stories. The fall from the Garden of Eden.

The older you get, the more satisfaction you might get out of bitter stories that are more meaningful. It’s more mature as we say.

But then, as you become too much of a snob for your own liking, having a mood sapped by stories of transcendence through adversity gets old too. And so either you stay in that realm, or you destroy your own uppity.

You wisen down, fool up and get back to the Teletubies with brand new appreciation (Perhaps you might want to use the help of a magic mushroom as the key to open the last door of perception and break through to the other side?). And on the other sides lies again waiting for you, the Garden of earthly delights.

Like a loop. Once you became the know-it-all seen-it-all masterful wise old magician for long enough, the only thing you want is to go back to is being silly. You’re back to your original self, naive and pure and true, and embracing your renewed appreciation for not knowing what you’re doing but doing it anyway.

You remember how beautiful was the world when you were not caring too much about whether something is good or not. Just whatever is fun to do. Like a child. And that being an adult on his way towards being a bitter old man/woman is a no-go. Then perhaps go back to your roots. Back to basics. And I’m sure your roots are always sweet and fun. Because that’s the basics of life. If like is too bitter It’s not nice. The most profound wisdoms are to be found in the basics.

And you despair at the idea that most consumers of pop/cheesy/stupid/sweet/easy stuff are just not willing to get out of the base. Is there a hidden wisdom in having ridiculously low expectations and be satisfied with similar stuff your entire life?

There’s comfort in there, but no wisdom.

Wisdom maybe is when you’ve been in bitter land, but you’ve been back. And now you’re ready for the creation of your first masterpiece.

A bittersweet symphony that is in harmony with the unfolding of the universe. A piece of work that comes by itself. That’s granted to you thanks to many years of efforts that you put in.

When you stop worrying about this question all together and let it happen just the way that IIt wants to happen. I think this is where the true masterwork begins. At the place where naivety and mastery dance together.

Thank god, the magician is able to be foolish again!

There’s nothing more profound than being silly beyond profundicity.

Whatever that means.