FT 6/21/10 - Picasso: Reality and The Abstract

In Seth Godin's new book Linchpin he shares the story of a man and Pablo Picasso that goes...

A guy is riding in the first-class cabin of a train in Spain and to his delight, he notices that he's sitting next to Pablo Picasso. Gathering up his courage, he turns to the master and say, "Senor Picasso, you are a great artist, but why is all your art, all modern art, so screwed up? Why don't you paint reality instead of these distortions?

Picasso hesitates for a moment and asks, "So what do you think reality looks like?"

The man grabs his wallet and pulls out a picture of his wife. "Here, like this. It's my wife."

Picasso takes the photograph, looks at it, and grins. "Really? She's very small. And flat, too."

As we look at what we are thinking this week, we have to understand that just because we can reduce things into symbols, that does not mean that the symbols are reality and aren't an abstraction. They are in fact the worst kind of abstraction...an abstraction not seen for what it truly is.

Abstract thought often scares people to death. It means contemplating some uncomfortable ideas and scenarios. However, symbols like the photograph of the guy's wife are merely accepted abstractions. The photograph is not reality. It merely captures one very small slice of who his wife really is. If he honestly thought that it was his wife in totality, I'm pretty sure their marriage would be short lived...or he would have a short life anyway.

As we are thinking about what we are thinking about this week, we need to consider what symbols and abstractions we have accepted as reality. Maybe it is your abilities or gifts that you have reduced to mere symbols that can only be applied in a very limited scenario. Perhaps we need to spend some time thinking abstractly about our gifts, abilities, relationships, and working environments in order to get a better look at reality and the options that are before us. We need to think outside the photograph and consider the totality and how we fit into that scenario.

What do you think?