It is in vain that we look for genius in the old arts; it is its instinct to find beauty and holiness in new and necessary facts, in the field and roadside, in the shop and mill.
From Art, Essays First Series by Ralph Waldo Emerson
It is in human nature, I think, to look to the past to predict the future. And that trajectory - when the past lights a path - is not as reliable as it once was.
It is an opportunity. In many ways, it is unreasonable to use the old arts that could not have contemplated a new perspective or new ways of doing things. Now the old arts are just guides and not necessarily rules. Genius entails the discovery of a unique perspective - maybe a prism - which highlights a bit of evidence - necessary facts to light a new way when the old is a dead end.
It is the feeling that I get when I go through a familiar neighborhood from a different direction - a tree I never noticed before, a red roof line that cuts through a topaz blue sky - it is sometimes as simple as that - and a whole new thought, something never thought before presents a solution.
Nothing like being offline every chance I get.
