I perceive a necessary gap between seeing and being. I would not be able to have said certain things if I had been under the obligation to unify the word and the deed. As it is I can let my words reach out and net impossible things - things that are impossible for me to do. And this is a way to pay the price for saying or seeing things.
Interpretation
The quote highlights the distinction between thought and action, suggesting that one can envision possibilities beyond their current capabilities.
Norman O. Brown discusses the inherent separation between what we perceive and what we are able to accomplish in life. He argues that the ability to express ideas freely, even those beyond our grasp, allows for a richer imagination and a broader understanding of potential realities. This 'gap' permits us to explore thoughts and concepts that may never translate into action, thus enabling a creative freedom in our expressions that can inspire change or provoke thought.
In practice
In a speech about creativity, one might quote this to emphasize the importance of envisioning new ideas.
Mankind today is still making history without having any conscious idea of what it really wants or under what conditions it would stop being unhappy; in fact what it is doing seems to be making itself more unhappy and calling that unhappiness progress.
Resisting madness is the maddest way of being mad.
The human body is not a thing or substance, given, but a continuous creation. The human body is an energy system which is never a complete structure; never static; is in perpetual inner self-construction and self-destruction; we destroy in order to make it new.
Let nothing be done in your life, which will cause you fear if it becomes known to your neighbor.
There is nothing to take a man’s freedom away from him, save other men.
No religion is responsible for terrorism. People are responsible for violence and terrorism.
Man is a history-making creature, who can neither repeat his past, nor leave it behind.
These wrinkles are nothing These gray hairs are nothing, This stomach which sags with old food, these bruised and swollen ankles, my darkening brain, they are nothing. I am the same boy my mother used to kiss.
Our Being is Becoming, not stasis. Our Science is Utopia, our Reality is Eros, our Desire is Revolution.
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