What Really Matters

Excerpt from "The Whisper of the Order of Things, " an On Being conversation with Enrique Martínez Celaya andKrista Tippett (June 15, 2017):

“The prophet is not a martyr or mystic who seeks transcendence, but one who turns humbly and curiously towards the world.

There’s a tendency for us to think that to be a prophet or to do anything grand, you have to have a special gift, be someone called for. And I think ultimately what really matters is the resolve — to want to do it, to give your life to that which you consider important.

And if you have no skills to offer — or nothing special to offer — it’s all the more amazing that you do it — the more remarkable.

I think that resolve is all that really matters.

And in the specific case of art, I think the notion that to bring the future forward by throwing yourself desperately — I think desperation is part of what I consider a prophet to have. Once you have made that resolve to launch yourself forward, then desperation is the only factor: urgency, desperation. There is no way to calculate.

And the reason I made the distinction between minor prophet is [that] I’m not trying to put any capital letters here or trying to say that you’re going to be remembered as such because it really doesn’t matter. It’s a private journey that no one needs to really know about.

Enrique Martinez Celaya Enrique Martinez Celaya - The Landmark, 2016, 75 H x 100 W x 94 D inches.