Jenna... and this is why we're here, doing these tough things, for each other.
Not everyone is, of course, and there's a deep sadness to that fact. Something I mourn often. I do believe though, that a good lot of us have a part to play in a different kind of revolution than the one being forced on us. YOUR creative energies are an absolutely crucial ingredient--incendiary and loving both. I need your work too!!!
Exactly this. Even with all the bells, whistles, noise and numbers gaining ground on this platform, the connections here, including with you in these moments, are very real and very important.
I can’t believe I’m about to do this… riffing on a Seinfeld episode… ‘Sanity now!’ 🥸🥹
SHELL YES. Thank you, Bree. Our creative spirit is the best of us. Even if it’s not going somewhere, being seen, being productive. The urge to go within and make sense of our lives - or even experience the simple pleasures of being alive - matters even more now. My indigenous teachers say that making beauty is how we repay the creator for our many gifts.
Christine, your place at this table is *deeply* valued. I know you're a fellow cheerleader and champion of all these things, and more. I really do believe that in addition to the repaying of our debts to a/the creator, to the source itself, we're also repaying our debts to each other. We're positioning ourselves to operate from a constructive place, versus the opposite--of which we're seeing/feeling/sustaining from all directions these days.
I feel you're with me, my friend, and am so honored by your energies.
Ahhhh, Bree - your generous words light me up from the inside. I'd edited out a line from my comment on the balancing work we're doing when we bravely show up at our desk, our work bench, our tables, again and again. It may feel invisible, the energy we contribute to the whole. But so is electricity (where positive meets the negative and makes POWER!)
I sent this post to my sculptor husband. We've had many of these "what's it all for?" conversations lately. We need each other to keep shining a light on our Why. And to soften expectations of how our creative work is received. You're providing an excellent service to us through your work, and the ways you see our world!
I'll do you one more, Christine... I almost bagged this whole essay.
I hope you both agree--THIS is what it's all for. We're so damned results driven, constantly bludgeoned over the head like captives while forced to prove what we're doing is worth something (typically measured of course in dollars). We're really failing each other. Until we insist on doing things differently, and bringing others along with us.
Thank you for being here with me, and to your sculptor husband too. I won't stop if you won't!
I feel the truth in this. You speak early in this piece that artistic expression can be a way to connect with other humans- emotionally, spiritually, intellectually. Later you talk about how you feel different- more connected and actuated on the days when you take the time for artistic endeavor. It seems that artistic expression is as important for connecting with the true you, as it is for connecting with other humans. When you connect with the genuine yourself, (first or in tandem with) your connections with others will become more meaningful. Stripping away the garbage coat that modern consumerist society hangs on our shoulders before interacting with all things external would solve so many of the communication issues caused by modern posturing. Akin to some psychedelic experiences, there is s little ego death in artistic expression.
If I can pinpoint some exact inspiration for a sec--it's you. Your dedication to your own creative work, and the internal energies that fuel it, has been foundational to my own cartwheeling through this stuff. You well know how long it's taken me to value my own creative life and work, how I fought it, envying your unyielding discipline, resenting. And what's happened now, because of the RE-valuation of my creativity, is exactly what you've read into here (it's also been totally unexpected). My deeper connection with my interior self, through the rebuilding of my creative practices, has changed my relationship to the external, to others, to the past and the future.
Ego death, maybe. Feels like an ego evolution... and maybe a little like ego *communion*. Is that psycho-babble, or what??! Sklounst.
Thank you for this reminder today, I really needed it. This world is increasingly designed to drag our focus away from ourselves and our own creative capacity and onto things to be afraid of or distracted by. I’ve been struggling mightily with this recently, as I imagine a lot of others have. For me this is also a struggle to escape some childhood conditioning of my parents, who - bless them - watch and listen to the news morning and night and often drilled into me the supposed importance of being informed with current events. I now think (for me) it’s often wiser to read books extensively on issues that concern me to then get to consider viewpoints that are backed up by a broad sample size of events and research. I may be slower to form my opinions on world events, but when I do come to my conclusions my positions are better informed and then I can make better long term choices as I’ve been informed by them. And in the meantime if I did it correctly I’d have been less distracted, more focused and more intentional.
You're absolutely not alone! What's most tragic to me, and you're hitting on this exact thing, is how late-stage capitalism and the distraction economy are so expertly adept at weaponizing our base desires. That conditioning from your parents, manipulative or not, is something easily preyed upon... a predisposition toward a need that can be suggested to, distracted away from, exploited and supercharged. The solution, as you're finding for yourself, isn't at all easy. It takes time and effort. It takes moral aptitude, reflection, emotional intelligence, the list goes on. You're doing it, and you're seeing the effect in real time.
Please don't stop, and don't stop sharing what you've learned along the way. We need you!
As a former Big Media journalist with similar "informed" ancestors, it's empowering to choose how and when and how much news we consume. It's brave to unhook and honor your creative impulses, to make sense of things as you see fit. Well done.
Seconding this, and with gusto. It IS brave, always, to do hard things that aren't at all supported by the majority. Hoping, and with every effort from my corner, that we can all contribute in turning this boat around.
Brava! (good timing for me to hear this, as I’m in Costa Rica visiting dear expat friends who’ve encouraged us to leave the US for years…) feels like a true “shite or get off” moment.
Sure does, doesn't it??! I've got a really solid flight response, so: heard, chef. Way I see it, the work we can do, re-routing the boat, outlasts, outlives, outsmarts any one political administration or party.
And also, have my passport at the ready. Good trouble can be made anywhere.
Writing as an American married to a Canadian I’m glad I got here when I did. Costa Rica is also lovely though - I don’t think you can go wrong either way. :)
I am so glad that Jess Greenwood shared an excerpt from this piece in Notes. I agree deeply with everything you’ve said here, and yet I often fail to prioritize my choices in a way that reflects that belief. It always feels like an uphill battle to carve out time for creative endeavors, especially if they are not for profit. It saddens me that the times our culture identifies as appropriate for the pursuit of creative expression are childhood and our senior years - as if making art is little more than a pastime to distract. Thank you for this always timely reminder.
Jamie! I’m so glad, and you’re so not alone. I’ve neglected my art for decades, giving in to exactly those societal pressures and expectations. It’s a hard split, breaking out of the comfort of being molded by others, but man—it DOES get easier. And… more fun, more purposeful, more everything.
Let’s keep reminding each other, okay?? We need more of us making time for making art. 🫶🏻
Wonderful! The creative zone is magic and it is also so rewarding to experience the product of the magical creators!!
I needed this today. Thank you.
Jenna... and this is why we're here, doing these tough things, for each other.
Not everyone is, of course, and there's a deep sadness to that fact. Something I mourn often. I do believe though, that a good lot of us have a part to play in a different kind of revolution than the one being forced on us. YOUR creative energies are an absolutely crucial ingredient--incendiary and loving both. I need your work too!!!
These days, we need the energy and quite frankly, the sanity, of like-minded folks in order to survive and get through this crazy world!
Exactly this. Even with all the bells, whistles, noise and numbers gaining ground on this platform, the connections here, including with you in these moments, are very real and very important.
I can’t believe I’m about to do this… riffing on a Seinfeld episode… ‘Sanity now!’ 🥸🥹
SHELL YES. Thank you, Bree. Our creative spirit is the best of us. Even if it’s not going somewhere, being seen, being productive. The urge to go within and make sense of our lives - or even experience the simple pleasures of being alive - matters even more now. My indigenous teachers say that making beauty is how we repay the creator for our many gifts.
Christine, your place at this table is *deeply* valued. I know you're a fellow cheerleader and champion of all these things, and more. I really do believe that in addition to the repaying of our debts to a/the creator, to the source itself, we're also repaying our debts to each other. We're positioning ourselves to operate from a constructive place, versus the opposite--of which we're seeing/feeling/sustaining from all directions these days.
I feel you're with me, my friend, and am so honored by your energies.
Ahhhh, Bree - your generous words light me up from the inside. I'd edited out a line from my comment on the balancing work we're doing when we bravely show up at our desk, our work bench, our tables, again and again. It may feel invisible, the energy we contribute to the whole. But so is electricity (where positive meets the negative and makes POWER!)
I sent this post to my sculptor husband. We've had many of these "what's it all for?" conversations lately. We need each other to keep shining a light on our Why. And to soften expectations of how our creative work is received. You're providing an excellent service to us through your work, and the ways you see our world!
I'll do you one more, Christine... I almost bagged this whole essay.
I hope you both agree--THIS is what it's all for. We're so damned results driven, constantly bludgeoned over the head like captives while forced to prove what we're doing is worth something (typically measured of course in dollars). We're really failing each other. Until we insist on doing things differently, and bringing others along with us.
Thank you for being here with me, and to your sculptor husband too. I won't stop if you won't!
I feel the truth in this. You speak early in this piece that artistic expression can be a way to connect with other humans- emotionally, spiritually, intellectually. Later you talk about how you feel different- more connected and actuated on the days when you take the time for artistic endeavor. It seems that artistic expression is as important for connecting with the true you, as it is for connecting with other humans. When you connect with the genuine yourself, (first or in tandem with) your connections with others will become more meaningful. Stripping away the garbage coat that modern consumerist society hangs on our shoulders before interacting with all things external would solve so many of the communication issues caused by modern posturing. Akin to some psychedelic experiences, there is s little ego death in artistic expression.
If I can pinpoint some exact inspiration for a sec--it's you. Your dedication to your own creative work, and the internal energies that fuel it, has been foundational to my own cartwheeling through this stuff. You well know how long it's taken me to value my own creative life and work, how I fought it, envying your unyielding discipline, resenting. And what's happened now, because of the RE-valuation of my creativity, is exactly what you've read into here (it's also been totally unexpected). My deeper connection with my interior self, through the rebuilding of my creative practices, has changed my relationship to the external, to others, to the past and the future.
Ego death, maybe. Feels like an ego evolution... and maybe a little like ego *communion*. Is that psycho-babble, or what??! Sklounst.
Thank you for this reminder today, I really needed it. This world is increasingly designed to drag our focus away from ourselves and our own creative capacity and onto things to be afraid of or distracted by. I’ve been struggling mightily with this recently, as I imagine a lot of others have. For me this is also a struggle to escape some childhood conditioning of my parents, who - bless them - watch and listen to the news morning and night and often drilled into me the supposed importance of being informed with current events. I now think (for me) it’s often wiser to read books extensively on issues that concern me to then get to consider viewpoints that are backed up by a broad sample size of events and research. I may be slower to form my opinions on world events, but when I do come to my conclusions my positions are better informed and then I can make better long term choices as I’ve been informed by them. And in the meantime if I did it correctly I’d have been less distracted, more focused and more intentional.
You're absolutely not alone! What's most tragic to me, and you're hitting on this exact thing, is how late-stage capitalism and the distraction economy are so expertly adept at weaponizing our base desires. That conditioning from your parents, manipulative or not, is something easily preyed upon... a predisposition toward a need that can be suggested to, distracted away from, exploited and supercharged. The solution, as you're finding for yourself, isn't at all easy. It takes time and effort. It takes moral aptitude, reflection, emotional intelligence, the list goes on. You're doing it, and you're seeing the effect in real time.
Please don't stop, and don't stop sharing what you've learned along the way. We need you!
As a former Big Media journalist with similar "informed" ancestors, it's empowering to choose how and when and how much news we consume. It's brave to unhook and honor your creative impulses, to make sense of things as you see fit. Well done.
Seconding this, and with gusto. It IS brave, always, to do hard things that aren't at all supported by the majority. Hoping, and with every effort from my corner, that we can all contribute in turning this boat around.
Brava! (good timing for me to hear this, as I’m in Costa Rica visiting dear expat friends who’ve encouraged us to leave the US for years…) feels like a true “shite or get off” moment.
Sure does, doesn't it??! I've got a really solid flight response, so: heard, chef. Way I see it, the work we can do, re-routing the boat, outlasts, outlives, outsmarts any one political administration or party.
And also, have my passport at the ready. Good trouble can be made anywhere.
Writing as an American married to a Canadian I’m glad I got here when I did. Costa Rica is also lovely though - I don’t think you can go wrong either way. :)
Truly!!
I am so glad that Jess Greenwood shared an excerpt from this piece in Notes. I agree deeply with everything you’ve said here, and yet I often fail to prioritize my choices in a way that reflects that belief. It always feels like an uphill battle to carve out time for creative endeavors, especially if they are not for profit. It saddens me that the times our culture identifies as appropriate for the pursuit of creative expression are childhood and our senior years - as if making art is little more than a pastime to distract. Thank you for this always timely reminder.
Jamie! I’m so glad, and you’re so not alone. I’ve neglected my art for decades, giving in to exactly those societal pressures and expectations. It’s a hard split, breaking out of the comfort of being molded by others, but man—it DOES get easier. And… more fun, more purposeful, more everything.
Let’s keep reminding each other, okay?? We need more of us making time for making art. 🫶🏻