The Colors of Happiness, the Tremors of the Soul
Look here, you. Won’t you lend me your ear for a moment? No, no, there is no need to be so formal. Just settle yourself into that chair over there and indulge me in my rambling chatter. I wonder, why is it that this world of ours is painted over in such a flat, monotonous gray? You wake up, wash your face, eat your meals as if fulfilling a grim obligation, get swayed by the train, and scatter sycophantic smiles toward God knows who. In the midst of such a repetition, has your heart not become, before you even realized it, like a parched desert?
I had a sudden thought recently. What human beings truly seek is not money, nor fame, and certainly not that suffocating overcoat called morality. It is simply a burst of vivid color that makes the soul gasp in astonishment. Yes, exactly like that nameless passion splashed across the canvas by that fellow, Wassily Kandinsky.
How to Listen to Invisible Music
Tell me, have you fallen into the trap of believing that a painting must depict something concrete? That an apple must be red, the sky must be blue, and a woman must always be smiling beautifully? Because you chase only what is visible to the eye, your heart grows weary so easily. That gentleman Kandinsky said something truly fascinating. He preached that color itself is music, a keyboard that directly touches the soul.
Imagine it. The moment the color yellow strikes your eardrum like the piercing high note of a trumpet. Or a deep blue becoming the grave melody of a cello, gently enveloping your loneliness. He liberated color from the prison of form. This is a revolution, you see. For, after all, we live surrounded by things we do not understand. Why a lover suddenly turns sullen, or why tears nearly spill at the sight of a sunset. There is no reason. It is simply that the “resonance” existing there is harmonizing with something deep within you.
The Labyrinth Called Internal Necessity
Now, let us discuss something a bit more difficult. No, do not run away. There is no story more important to you than this. Have you ever heard the phrase “Internal Necessity”? Expression does not exist to tidy up external appearances. It must follow an irrepressible cry welling up from the inside. That is what Kandinsky believed.
The so-called “proper people” of the world are forever fussing over the exterior. Whether a necktie is crooked, or whether they lead a grander life than the neighbor. Such things do not offer a single drop of help for the salvation of the soul. That agonizing urge deep in your heart, wishing to “be this way”—that is the true line that should be drawn upon the canvas of your life.
For instance, on a rainy afternoon, you are suddenly struck by a whim to tear up old letters. Or in the dead of night, you find yourself standing in the kitchen, overcome by a craving for cold water. These are all urgent signs emitted by your soul. Those who knit their brows at a Kandinsky abstract and mutter, “I don’t understand what’s drawn here,” are the same people who have plugged their ears to the voices of their own hearts. You must not be like them. For it is only when you stop seeking “meaning” that the world finally reveals its true form.
The Journey Up the Spiritual Triangle
It seems there is a hierarchy to human beings. No, I am not talking about social rank. I am talking about the purity of the spirit. Imagine a great triangle. At the base, a vast multitude of people are crowded together. There, living today just as you lived yesterday is considered a virtue. However, as you move toward the apex of the triangle, the air grows clear, and there dwell noble, artistic souls—solitary, perhaps, but sublime.
Where are you standing right now? If you feel a sense of suffocation in your current life, that is proof that you are attempting to climb to a higher level. Kandinsky believed that art itself becomes the force that pushes that triangle upward. A single dot, a single line. By combining them, the harmony of the universe is born. He observed the vibrations of the soul with the same precision a scientist uses to peer through a microscope.
We are allowed to be freer. We are allowed to trust our own senses more. It is perfectly fine to find a divine beauty in the color of a pebble lying by the roadside. It is fine to gaze lovingly at a strange pattern that no one else understands. For you are the editor of the art book that is your own life.
Liberation in the Name of Abstraction
To discard form is not to discard responsibility. Rather, it is to take up the essence. A triangle is not a mere shape, but a pointer toward a certain spiritual direction. A circle is a symbol of the universe’s completion and rebirth. When you strip things down to their absolute limit, what remains? Only a pure “trembling” remains.
Why don’t you try “abstracting” yourself once in a while? Strip away your name, your occupation, your past failures—strip it all off. If you do, what should remain is a naked soul that simply feels the world, reacts to color, and surrenders to rhythm. That is the realm of pure spirit that Kandinsky sought to reach.
My, I seem to have become a bit feverish. How embarrassing. But I am in earnest. I am hoping that, for even a fleeting moment, a flash like that on a canvas will pass through your eyes. Why not kick down the frame called “tedious daily life” and leap into a new sea of color? The world is far more incoherent, and far more helplessly beautiful, than you imagine.
Well, let us end our chat here. What color of wind will blow upon you as you step outside now? Please, cherish the unique music that your soul plays. You may forget the words of a hopeless clown like me immediately. I only ask that you tuck away that vision of a festival of invisible light—the one Kandinsky dreamed of—into a small corner of your heart. Well then, until we meet again someday, at some intersection of colors.