“The highest art…sets down its creations and trusts in their magic, without fear of not being understood.” - Herman Hesse

 "Never confuse movement with action" - Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961). Remark to Marlene Dietrich. In A.E. Hotchner, Papa Hemingway: A Personal Memoir, 1, 1967

All action is a type of movement, a change from state to state. When we act we do something. This is not just deciding to do something, but that active entrance into the world of the possible but not actual, to be the change we decide we want to have in the world. Notably, action can fail - we can decide to do something like learn a new language or pass a law, but this does not mean that our attempt to do so will succeed and that the world will change. In this way action is different from movement, because a movement does not aim to be a change, but is one by definition. Any change in the world can be understood as a movement from one physical, spiritual, or mental state to another, just as any recognized movement is necessarily a change of the world. 

The difference between action and movement lies in the shape they take. In the sense that I feel the quote means, mere movement is a circular motion, while action is a spiral movement. When we are warned to not confuse movement with action, we are shown that just because something is changing, that does not mean that something is changing toward or away from something. Rather, mere movement is designed to look like action from a certain angle, to raise lots of waves and cause bright flashing lights which are very distracting. Mere movement is loud and attention-seeking, but tends to somehow end up right back where it started. It is not designed to succeed in the goal it purports to set out and do, but is only designed to distract and tire. Sometimes this is maliciously done, as when virtue signaling, passing off the obvious to committee for further study, or taking an idea under consideration. Other time this is done only negligently, by procrastination or distraction. We sometimes undergo movement in desperation, when we don't quite have the will and energy to follow through, or we know we need to do something but for the life of us can't figure out what that something is. Most of the time we think that we can distinguish between action and mere movement by seeing if anything change, but this is not always the case. Because actions can fail, just because nothing seems to be changing doesn't mean that the energy in the action, and the stresses that gave rise to the action, have been wasted. If they did not achieve a full spiral, raising up the world to another level, they at least did not end up right back where they started. It may take us a thousand attempts to gain the vote, win the right, or climb the mountain, but each attempt at action is remembered, and gives rise to the next action-star. This we may call standing on the shoulders of giants. By contrast, mere movement does not give rise to the star. It simply recycles the power of the change, or siphens it off for other purposes. How much money has been raised for causes which were less urgent than they appeared? How many wars have been fought because of hyped-up fear and greed, and not righteously crusading courage or promise? How often do each and every one of us spend worrying over some social stress trying to run away from our problems by burying ourselves in our work or our art, making over and over again the same choices we later criticize ourselves for, but never improving ourselves? We often need a push, an interjection from another or from events, to knock ourselves out of alignment, to speed off in one direction or another, higher or lower, for better or worse, changing our movement, which ultimately goes nowhere, into a spiral path whereby we learn the meaning of action? 

My first thought when reading this quote was to understand it as a warning for us when looking at things outside. Is a person in our life actually changing for the better, or just going around in circles? Is all our worry over a social or political issue, the hubbub and noise in all the news, actually a sign that something is happening, or just a short-term fad to distract ourselves from bigger problems? Are we faced with sound and fury signifying nothing, or with the thunder from a lighting bolt which connected heaven and earth? That is, should we care about what we're looking at, and is it important? Thus, to not confuse movement with action is to not waste our energy. To not waste our life, and, when we truly care about an issue, learn how to tell the earnest and sincere from the bandwagoners. After writing this, my second thought is that what applies to others can also apply to ourselves. I started writing because I wanted to change something, to do something. I wanted to take a small step in some direction away from here, for as I look back on my life and think about my life ahead, I wonder at how much and how little has changed. I have passed through some brave paths, and I have achieved some goals, but I also carry many of the same fears with me, still face many of the same trials daily. I know I've changed, but how much of my activity is mere movement, and how much is action? Instruments I've bought and not learned, games I've researched and not played, books I've not read once sitting on the shelf beside other books I've re-read ten times, people I'd like to talk to but don't for fear of heartache, philosopher's I once understood but have now forgotten - Is this just feeling sad for myself? I can also look at what I've accomplished, all that I've learned and done, strangers I've have deep discussions with, the things I've written, and so on. I know that I've improved my life, but I also know that much of it has also been spent In a holding pattern. I think that there are very few people who are all action all the time, and nobody who is all action in all directions. We marshal and direct our energy to achieve something today instead of everything all at once, because that way we are able to maintain a stable self and travel much farther on our chosen roads. We are tall and high in spirit so that we may see farther and use our levers better. We are wide and heavy so that we may exert our force as a feather flying against the wind. We want to believe in ourselves, but we also want to be critical of ourselves - to undertake action and achievement, to not just exist, but to also be alive.