How does a mind become ashamed of itself? Shame is the most difficult of emotions. It serves an important social purpose. But it can also punish us severely with guilt for harms not afflicted. Truth can be embarrassing, but it is still truth. One can be ashamed of the most beautiful thoughts and feelings.
Self attack is inherent in shame. To be engaged in thought, writing something unique and meaningful, is unquestionably active. But to the ashamed mind, it can be idleness. Then elaborate on that idleness: Call the thoughts chimeras, make the mind a runaway horse.
We should all aspire to such idleness. Our minds should dwell in those chimeras. Let us embrace the ashamed mind that dreams, imagines, loves and yearns. We can live with embarrassment. We can handle any truth.
I am missing David Lynch in my world. He had a childlike love of ideas, that if we sit silently, ideas will seek us and reveal themselves, and it is the artist’s duty to not just catch them, but follow them to the beautiful end of creation. We are all artists. We spring our loveliest ideas in life through our affections and in every act of creation.