Art and Distance

You can go through the day and never give yourself away. Keep your emotions in check, acquaintances distanced, even your friends may never know what little turmoils brew inside you. Do this long enough, and you stop knowing yourself. Do this with enough skill, and it becomes a surrealistic art form; the world bends to your will, but it doesn't, yet you have such clarity that you cannot doubt that it does.
What I have noticed about surrealistic art is that it seems beautiful at a distance, but often grotesque up close. You can tear it up and rearrange it to get the same effect. The only solution is to cut away everything except the one piece that is real, and start rebuilding from there. It cannot be done alone. Take the pieces you have cut out and exchange them. And never stop. Always rebuild, step back, get up close, and if it's not right, tear it up again. Otherwise, you get comfortable. You accept the jagged edges and bad transitions. You convince yourself that there is some beauty there, and though it may have been true once, the surroundings change and it no longer fits. The intent may be good, but the outcome may be a mess.