MetaMelanieism

 I am currently studying a postmodern theory, Narrative, which has been an excellent challenge to my "self". So, I have been navigating my way through this theory so that I won't feel phony when practicing it with clients.

In my navigating I keep returning to the Chesterton quote: "The poet only asks to get his head into the heavens. It is the logician who seeks to get the heavens into his head. And it is his head that splits.” If anything threatens to break my head, it would be the total irony of postmodernism.

I have always identified with modern artists, because of the naive, romantic mysticism with which they create(d). I have for quite some time identified with postmodern artists, because of their "no-rules" approach---but then I have also wrestled with the "no-truth" that eventually emerges from this "no-rules" when postmodern art philosophy is carried to the extreme. So, overall, because of the heavy value I place on process over content, I have always leaned more toward modern art---but can't quite call myself a modern artist. Consider the following diagram, where my position is represented by a big, black X: 

See why I have thought of this as a problem? I am not quite one thing, but definitely not the other. (This diagram reminded me of the tightrope walker oil pastel (above) I colored five years ago. I wrote a poem to go with it then...I'll dig it out one of these days.)

This is the space in which I have always lived as a human. I was there long before I knew the name of either pole, or that the continuum even existed. I have lived here, artistically, too. ...and now I find myself in this ambiguous place theoretically as a therapist, too. Wah-wah, right?

Wah-wah, wrong. I am just beginning to understand why being in this space is not actually a problem---or why it might actually be a good problem to have (consider the art that has and will come from this!).

In my coming-to-terms with the roots of Narrative theory, I have discovered the suggested (because not everyone agrees on the name of said space between yet) term "Metamodernism", which defines a concept that acts like a tension bridge between the polar opposites of modernism and postmodernism. Though I am more poet than logician, I believe the point of Metamodernism is to keep moving on the continuum, never fully realizing either pole. This creates space for me to practice Narrative theory even if I don't subscribe entirely to its postmodern roots.

When practicing Narrative Theory, you help a person externalize their "problem". You help them name it so they can explore it in new ways, so they can see how it affects their lives, so they can evaluate the consequences of it, narrate how it has gotten them to this point, and re-story.

The really crazy thing about all of this? In studying my own self/problem in relation to Narrative Theory, I have proven Narrative theory works.

I gave my position a name. I quit thinking of that position as a problem.By now I am actually a little bit excited about the possibilities of my position.

(Now you know why I posted the Herbert poem in the previous post, below. 400 years ago Herbert wrestled with being between. See the last two lines of that first stanza.)