Chapter 4 of potential hindrances to our creative development:
**00IV: The best creations are made with great skill and labour and time AND entirely by the artist (without cheating)**
If we believe this statement, are we talking about the kind of existing work we enjoy or the way we want to make work? Does this make us hop up and go, “oh dang, I can’t wait to start labouring!”? Or do we wonder what is actually meant by ‘skill’, ‘labour’ and ‘time’?
Portrait of James Hamilton, Earl of Arran , 2013.
Oil on canvas 72 X 60 inches
Let’s say we appreciate things that are made in this way: with the patience, discipline, grit, hustle, commitment and perseverance it might take to write a symphony, carve out a Stradivarius (did one guy do that?), or complete a Kehinde Wiley painting (see left). Mind-body-spirit and history altering works and performances (of all kinds) have been made through these qualities. In the high speed chase of our (whose got the time) culture, these results are easy to really get behind and be in awe of. But keeping to the aim of these writings (that hope to help open the gates to your individual creative essence), how is this statement presupposing and how might it bump up or beat down possibilities?
For several years I’ve been observing the effects of ‘motivational’ presentations for middle school and high school students (ages 12-18 yrs roughly). As you might expect, the presenter shares a story of either being born with a disability or experiencing a tragedy or hardships that they overcame to reach triumphant success. The strongest emphasis is often on the virtue of perseverance and the message can come across as: you have to keep on in a crap storm or something like, “you have both your arms, so you can do anything!” Despite this, I am sure there are students who are uplifted and inspired during these assemblies but I’ve seen many of them rolling their eyes and looking pretty de-motivated after them.
I could dismiss this as typical adolescent sass but out of curiosity, and on several occasions, I opened a discussion back in the classroom about their feelings toward the whole thing. Students expressed a common attitude of I’m not good enough/special enough and I don’t want to have to persevere; like, “I could never break my back (literally) and get back on the horse to become a champion. And I don’t want to.”
This discussion brought into focus my own disdain for those classroom posters with competitive undertones that say things like, “Winners never quit and quitters never win” which just gets me thinking things like, “what if you quit drug abuse or lying to yourself?” It also helped me recall my own feelings of frustration when someone tries to motivate me by comparing my uninspired experience to someone else’s inspired one. Obviously there is a critical difference between investing in something that we have no interest or curiosity about and being fascinated and called to it. That’s when I realized that a motivational speech might be more effective if the emphasis was on the finding and aligning with what we each love and appreciate.
You have probably already realized that doing something that you genuinely enjoy (or believe in), makes the potential skill, labour, time and challenges less like drudgery. Speaking from my own experience, no one had to ‘motivate me’ to draw all afternoon as a child or show up to every volleyball practice in College with a blown ankle to ride a stationary bike so that I could maintain fitness while I recovered. And no one is pushing me to write this on my day off, either. It feels good to be doing it because I am compelled by something from within; my inspiration comes from within. I may be called by something or someone in my external experience but the resonance is inside of me. I don’t need to be cattle prodded.
If you look up former NBA basketball player, Kobe Bryant (who tragically passed away early this year), there’s a good chance you will find an emphasis on his ‘work ethic.’ Which is fair because there are countless accounts of his marathon shooting sessions, injury comebacks, superhero workouts, etc. Yeah, he had work ethic but what I see is a man who found what he loved and gave all his attention to it. He wasn’t out there soul suffering like someone who is forced to take over the family business. Bryant wrote about this himself in an animated short documentary called “Dear Basketball”. Here’s an excerpt of his narration of the film:
Los Angeles Lakers’ Kobe Bryant on Wednesday, Dec. 30, 2015.(AP Photo/Winslow Townson)
Dear Basketball,
From the moment
I started rolling my dad’s tube socks
And shooting imaginary
Game-winning shots
In the Great Western Forum
I knew one thing was real:
I fell in love with you.
A love so deep I gave you my all —
From my mind & body
To my spirit & soul.
[…]
And so I ran.
I ran up and down every court
After every loose ball for you.
You asked for my hustle
I gave you my heart
Because it came with so much more.
I played through the sweat and hurt
Not because challenge called me
But because YOU called me.
I did everything for YOU
Because that’s what you do
When someone makes you feel as
Alive as you’ve made me feel.
[…]
Along these lines of thought, the words that stand out are “You asked for my hustle/I gave you my heart/Because it came with so much more” and “I played through the sweat and hurt/Not because challenge called me/ But because YOU called me.” When we take action from the heart we seem to have access to a far greater life-force energy; a vitality that flows with no resistance. When we pursue things we think we should (sound familiar?) we end up dealing with our own resistance against something and work much harder at it.
Alan Wilson Watts (6 January 1915 – 16 November 1973) was a British philosopher, writer, and speaker, best known for interpreting and popularizing Eastern philosophy for a Western audience.
Have you ever been standing next to someone and listening to the same music and felt like busting a move while the other person is totally annoyed by the song? Most likely you are feelin’ that music and the other person is not feelin’ it. The song is just the song. I doubt you are thinking, “oh, there’s music so I should try real hard to move to it.” Like Alan Watts said it,
Life and love generate effort, but effort will not generate them. Faith-in life, in other people, and in oneself is the attitude of allowing the spontaneous to be spontaneous, in its own way and in its own time.
I have already mentioned in previous postings the tendency to seek out suffering in a limiting way. I myself am still teetering with the habit of choosing work (usually for money) that goes against my nature and talents in (secret) hopes to be appreciated by others (my family, mainly) who value ‘hard work’ and ‘suffering’ over ease and clarity. There is a common distrust or resentment towards someone who seems to live an easy life; the sneer of, they’re the lucky ones.
I think back to being in school when we were told, “do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.” I’ve always felt like this comes with a bolder subtitle of “but you gotta sacrifice and work hard or no one will respect you and no pain no gain.” I took both of these messages and have dithered a fair bit over them; which basically means I get scared of pursuing what I love because it comes easy and feels good and then get pissed when instead I’ve chosen to do something that goes against my nature. Somewhere along the line I must have subliminally concluded that hard work meant doing something I didn’t like (because staying up all night making art has never felt like ‘work’ to me) and have thereby pursued paths that lack heart.
I say all of this because it’s tricky to get with our personal creative centre if we think it’s going to be (or it has to be) hard. So what is it about loving something that makes things feel easy?
It’s the same struggle for each of us, and the same path out: the utterly simple, infinitely wise, ultimately defiant act of loving one thing and then another, loving our way back to life.
~BARBARA KINGSOLVER
*Disclaimer: No copyright infringement intended. I do my best to track down original sources. All rights and credits reserved to respective owner(s). Email me for credits/removal.