"Otherwise known as the creative push and pull of a zen approach vs. a narrative approach. Here is an a pretty brilliant distillation of the forces at work by the legendary dancer and choreographer Twyla Tharp:
'Zoe and bios both mean life in Greek, but they are not synonymous. Zoe, wrote Kerenyi, refers to "life in general, without characterization." Bios characterizes a specific life, the outlines that distinguish one living thing from another. Bios is the Greek root for "biography," zoe for "zoology"
I cannot overstate what a profound distinction this was. Suddenly, two states of experience were made plain to me.
Zoe is like seeing Earth from space. You get the sense of life on the rotating globe, but without a sense of the individual lives being lived on the planet. Bios involves swooping down from space from the perch of a high-powered spy satellite, closing in on the scene, and seeing the details. Bios distinguishes between one life and another. Zoe refers to the aggragate.
Bios accommodates the notion of death, that each life has a beginning, middle, and end, that each life contains a story. Zoe, wrote Kerenyi, "does not admit of the experience of its own destruction: it is experienced without end, as infinite life."
The difference between zoe and bios is like the difference between sacred and profane. Sacred art is zoe-driven; profane art stems from bios.'
- p.42 of The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp"
p.s. Music sample is from Gwen Stefani, 'Wonderful Life' http://www.gwenstefani.com.