Everyone struggles with asking, either for favors, money, or just a simple introduction, and it’s this ongoing feud within the individual that Amanda Palmer dictates to be an issue of maintaining a leveled sense of self-comfort. Expecting the answer of a ‘no’ and the insecurity that lies beyond that are what causes individuals to be disconnected from others as he or she feels as though a simple question would be burdening to others and that a response would be more of a liability than an answer. Palmer said it herself that she was never afraid of asking. Whether her request would be as obscene as asking for a stranger’s tampon or as grand as asking the entire internet for her financial backing, Palmer was comfortable with herself enough to find that initiative to ask others for help and to be that perceived “failure” in the eyes of others. But she reasons. She reasons her way out of that rabbit hole of distress and insecurities, knowing that a woman would have one of those days, that it would come to be her turn to ask for whichever object she’s in need of whether it be a pen or a tampon, and that these things will eventually happen. 

“Our representations of inspiration are far from perfect for perfection is unobtainable and unattainable.”

Agnes Martin brilliantly portrays the futility in finding perfection as means of an artist’s goal. The preconceived notion of perfection as a product of creationism is a false portrayal of its true representation. Martin emphasizes just how abstract the idea of perfection is by defining it as part of a moment’s awareness; “In our minds, there is awareness of perfection.” Even then, its existence still needs to be questioned since our view of perfection is all based on previous encounters or learned ideals, and a founded view led by this feeling of perfection in spite of all its soundness may, as most things in life would, suddenly turn its head on you. Our lives are ever-changing, and in these moments when you feel as though you seem to have lost yourself or have strayed off the “right path” where, as Martin puts it,

“In moments of blindness when you meet someone you know well, they seem hardly recognizable, and one seems even a stranger to oneself.”

Seeking perfection is not the artist’s goal nor is it his or her purpose. The one term that Martin throws at her reader is inspiration, and she does so as way of satisfying the reader with this conclusion:  “ -- we can see perfectly, but we cannot do perfectly.” The artist can strive his or her best to complete a work hoping to reach the state of perfection but at the end of the day, the true embodiment of such a state relies on the observer's definition of perfection. It is through this overlooked act of a simple enthusiastic gaze that the meaning of inspiration shines through. No one is capable to producing perfection, but everyone with their artistic sensibilities can evoke the awareness of it and inspire others to do so. Perfection is ultimately a mere perspective that lies in one’s mind that one “can see perfectly.” But it takes no tangible shape that may be defined universally throughout each and every observer’s mind, and this understanding brings forth the overarching motif that Martin wishes to express which is the idea that drawing inspiration is a unique and individual experience - those "moments of perfection” and the awareness of it by witnessing an event or an artist’s work would lead us to believe that in this world there is such a beautiful thing as “perfection.”

“1. Be seen.

2. Be wrong.

3. Accept my inner multitudes.

4. Ask for, and receive, what I need.”

These four truths are those that adrienne maree brown lives by in order to gain her sense of interdependence, and each of these truths can easily be identified as coping mechanisms for one’s self-contradiction stemmed from the hyper-awareness of oneself. 

“Being seen” is the idea that the act of simply letting off that veil and revealing this true self (this “transparent” and “naked” self) is beautiful on its own. Part of achieving interdependence is displaying the image of a true self to those around us, to allow them to witness your truths simply by seeing. The greater purpose of this is to avoid the discrepancies in truths when they fail to align with one another and having to adapt to another’s ideals brings us to the point of “being wrong.” It is acceptable to adapt to newer ideas and this is arguably the best way to connect with others in a way that would not, as brown puts it, “smash people with your brilliance.” There is a lesser degree of verbal or conceptual violence that can help bring people together, highlighting the importance of unity in interdependence along with change movements as a whole. 

Although the first two truths tend to speak highly of a single self and transforming it to mend with those around us, the third truth, “accepting inner multitudes” is what uproots this greater conflict of self-contradiction as the main focus.

“An honest self would agree to some self-care practice or limitation that would protect my recovering, wounded body. And then another -honest, even earnest- self would almost immediately act against that agreement.”

This quote exemplifies the “contradictory truths” that brown mentions that are molded and influenced by those around us that, having placed their ideals on us as a result of interactions and exchange of ideas. And many times, these ideas tend to clash resulting in the contradiction of selves. Browne wishes to move forward alongside and acknowledge these contradictions as she views them as a chance for “inner alignment,” realizing that she is capable of absorbing and utilizing these voices of her loved ones as supporting truths of her own. In her own words: “I am not turning against myself, I am multitudes.”

Lastly, the fourth truth: “Ask for, and receive, what I need.” 

“We have to create futures in which everyone doesn’t have to be the same kind of person.”

The whole motif of transformation of one’s self as a method of contributing to this collective cause helps differentiates between that very self in the smallest form of the individual all the way to its larger scale in tending to the world around us. This idea of self is an image that we wish to be portrayed as and must be fit in a way that one would see as proper, and the closed mindedness of an individual must be made aware by one’s self in order to open up and scale outwards for the patterns of these fractals of our lives to be formed - the impact an individual can make based on his or her “transparent intentions.”

Without transparent intentions or the initiative to reach out in a way that you can make yourself clear to others, you lack the ability to communicate. Sure, you can have these inner thoughts vented up within you with your desires and urges shaping up as abstract pieces with no real form. If you cannot speak on these thoughts, make clear and “transparent” of your ideas, your own plans for change, and giving into this failed feat for transformation with the efforts leading to “failed solutions”, then this sense of emergence fails to capture the essence of one true intention, one that springs from an individual’s heart and beliefs rather than the compromising decisions to finalizing an agreement to get a corporation or government on board. 

“Relationships are everything.”

In her excerpt of “Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds,” adrienne maree brown draws the picture of lineage on the basis of “critical connections” and the distribution of information, a concept borrowed from Margaret Wheatley. This very connection ties in one key individual mentioned in brown’s introduction to her book that highlights the importance of connections and forms of information sharing through the arts media.

Invincible, also known as “ill Weaver,” is a rapper sprung from the streets of Detroit and this concept of gathering chaos and stringing together information for movement work, an ideology shared among brown and her aforementioned peers, shaped her very being from the start. Having lived in Israel for most of her childhood and only returning to the States at the age of 7, Invincible had a later development in the English language compared to most native-born children of her age. But it was this lack of knowledge, a seemingly chaotic language that was cryptic in both tongue and appearance, that pushed forth the learning and eventual development of her skills in the English language as ill Weaver pieces together different words in rap music, forming this thoughtful connection, the overlying theme of the idea of lineage, based initially on rhyming schemes of the lyrics and eventually on their individual meanings.

The collective project labelled as Complex Movements, inspired by the works of other thinkers such as Grace Lee Boggs who also plays a prominent role in brown’s shaping of her ideologies, calls forth social justice and, as Invincible puts it, “radical imagination,” through complex story-telling and interactions. As a forefront proponent of this project, Invincible incorporates her interpretation of a recent exhibition called Beware of the Dandelions during one of its conventions stating, “It takes a lot of relationship building, a lot of conversations, but it also takes spaces like this pod. Even if people aren’t willing to have a conversation with each other they might be willing to be transported to an otherworldly, science fiction parallel universe in a pod-like spaceship.”