Research ANd Development

I found out that's what RAND stands for. When I was in college, I wanted to become part of a "think tank". These appealed to me as beautiful, ideological factories, creating cutting edge ideas and transforming the world. In fact, I went so far as to look at the CIA and NSA for jobs along these lines. If you are bright enough, apparently, you can get a job for doing research and analysis. All along, however, I felt that that level of intellect was not where I was supposed to go. If I have completely given myself over to the line of work, I could have, but, would never have been able to say, should have.

And, as I do more research for my words book, I think I am beginning to see why. I started off looking at the word "telios ", the Greek word for "perfection". Through some side-tracking I went through "telios" to "techne" (a word I was curious about last week anyway) to "poiesis". This last one really caught my attention. Here is a snippet I got from Wikipedia that spoke to me a lot:

Poïesis is etymologically derived from the ancient Greek term ποιέω, which means "to make". This word, the root of our modern "poetry", was first a verb, an action that transforms and continues the world. Neither technical production nor creation in the romantic sense, poïetic work reconciles thought with matter and time, and man with the world. It is often used as a suffix as in the biology terms hematopoiesis and erythropoiesis, the former being the general formation of blood cells and the latter being the formation of red blood cells specifically.

In the Symposium (a Socratic dialogue written by Plato), Diotima describes how mortals strive for immortality in relation to poieses. In all begetting and bringing forth upon the beautiful there is a kind of making/creating or poiesis. In this genesis there is a movement beyond the temporal cycle of birth and decay. "Such a movement can occur in three kinds of poiesis: (1) Natural poiesis through sexual procreation, (2) poiesis in the city through the attainment of heroic fame and finally, and (3) poiesis in the soul through the cultivation of virtue and knowledge."

I have always had a fascination with the idea of creation. When I read the first line, I sensed this was essentially the same meaning I have focused on to this point. However, the fact that I have always had a longing to be poetic makes me think I am onto something. Looking more closely, I see this, "This word, the root of our modern "poetry", was first a verb, an action that transforms and continues the world. Neither technical production nor creation in the romantic sense, poïetic work reconciles thought with matter and time, and man with the world." In my posts on genius and creativity, I touched on a variety of issues, but, poetry (this transforming, continuing action) was at the heart of it. Genius, in this context, was merely represented the state of inimitable blessedness one receives when doing God's unique will for their life. As we are all unique by God's design, this transforming, world continuing action (poiesis) is the mechanism through which thought and space/time or matter/time are reconciled.

The more I think about it though, the less I see a true reconciliation as being possible. God's kingdom and the work of the world are two wholly separate and distinct things. Scripture marks the holy and the secular or the profane as a clear line of distinction between what one is supposed to do for God and the world. I am beginning to think that Plato's note was more about the struggle, not the holy end of one wrestling with the "poetic" or "creative" aspect of one's self. As was noted about Diotima in the Symposium, "how mortals strive for immortality in relation to poieses" was a major theme.

More explicitly, "In all begetting and bringing forth upon the beautiful there is a kind of making/creating or poiesis. In this genesis there is a movement beyond the temporal cycle of birth and decay. " This sounds very much like the struggle of Christians. Yet, to compare the poetic (as it is "naturally" considered) the end result of the struggle it towards making God's will be done, more so than the satisfaction felt when the expression of a creative urge has been realized and completed. In other words, it's not just about the creating, but, creating for a purpose, for God.

The fact that the article goes on mention three classical forms of poiesis make me think back to John Paul's three (or four) G's: girls/guys, glory and gold. The list the Wikipedia article provided was: 1) sex/reproduction 2) heroism and 3) self-fulfillment. Another way of looking at them would be relational, social and personal integration. So, the "poetic" work (that is the process of creating), or at least the struggle, is a very real element of the Christian life. There is a strong similarity there between the hellenistic ideal and the Christian process. But, when the ends of these two worldviews are concerned, I think the similarity ends and the any comparison between the two have to part ways here.