I’m undertaking a 1000-day reinvention project, blogging here daily to track my progress. In Monday Musings, I write freely and wanderingly about some topic that’s on my mind.
Today, metaphors of sticking to something. Metaphors help us make sense of life, and the more I make myself aware of the metaphors I’m relying upon at a point in time, the more I can make my life the life I want.
Yesterday, I shared a quote from Wendell Berry, in which he offered coherence as something people might aspire toward:
In consequence, one responds more clearly to other lives. The more coherent one becomes within oneself as a creature, the more fully one enteres into the communion of all creatures.
That got me thinking about the metaphor of coherence for describing a person’s approach the world, or their essence, or their life.
The word coherent comes from Latin roots meatning “to stick together.” The root com- means “together” and haerere means “to stick or adhere.” It describes something physical in the world — things sticking together. Coherence means when different parts or ideas fit together in a logical, natural, and consistent way.
Adherence is another kind of sticking together. A person showing adherence is following something outside themselves — rules or norms for example. When I maintain my lawn as lush and green as possible I’m adhering to modern-day suburban landscaping expectations.
Both adherence and coherence derive from the Latin word haerere meaning to stick or to cling. But adherence uses the prefix ad- meaning to or toward and coherence uses com- or co- meaning together or with. Adherence means to stick to something else. Coherence means to stick together as a whole.
Coherence and adherence are strictly metaphorical. Their physical counterparts are adhesion and cohesion. Adhesion means one kind of thing sticking to another thing: water droplets sticking to a window pane. Cohesion means one kind of thing sticking to itself: water droplets sticking to each other can form a puddle.
In living a life
In your life, should you seek coherence or adherence? It depends, of course. Many people might find themselves leaning towards adherence when they are young: first in school, you have to comply with various rules and expectations to earn degrees; later as a young adult you want to show yourself to be a responsible member of society, getting a job, perhaps marrying, maybe having children.
It’s at midlife and later that coherence might become more important. That’s not to say that adolescents and young adults don’t care about being at one with themselves — they do — some more than others. For me, adherence came first and now, at what I have to acknowledge is less midlife than early late life, I’m seeking coherence.
in art
As an artist, coherence is more important than adherence. But is that entirely true? An artist focused on producing art that sells might have to make her art adhere to current market expectations and demands. An artist focused, instead, on producing art that matters somehow might have to adhere to the current artistic discourse. An artist focused on developing her own unique sort of art will be looking for coherence. Of course the first two types of artists can’t dispense with coherence entirely. An artist who seeks to create popular, marketable art will do best if she has a signature style — a coherence to her work. And similarly for an artist who seeks to make a mark on the art world. She absolutely needs to demonstrate some coherence of vision.
In a single piece of art, there must be coherence for it to be good art no matter whether the purpose is to sell it, to show it, or to express one’s inner self.
Art demands coherence.
Whether it demands adherence to something external depends upon what the artist intends for it.
choosing metaphors deliberately
I’m finding it useful to be deliberate about what metaphors I try to live by at different times. This idea of cohesion and coherence makes me feel like a retreat from the world — a retreat from trying to stick to things that other people or institutions have created or have developed through some process of cultural evolution — is the right move for me right now.