Recently, I walked into a locksmith and the guy at the counter said, “Finally, a woman who has more tattoos than me.” He was probably flirting, but having tattoos always invites commentary. People tend to shout at me from the sidewalk, “Hey! Nice tat!”
It’s interesting, to say the least.
I don’t know why it is so hard in this life to be who you are, but it seems like many of us are stuck in embryo. We can’t quite figure out how to be the person we know we are. All that we see in other people and admire, all that we want to be, sometimes it’s all inside of us and we are merely projecting it, giving its power to the people around us.
*This was first posted on Dec. 14th, 2008, during the tumultuous downturn of the economy, right after I got laid off from a publishing job. I feel that the questions I asked here are still pertinent now, and wanted to re-post.
If, workers of the world, you were suddenly told you did not have to work another day for the rest of your life, what would you do?
Oh sure, it’s fun to imagine it when you’re chained to a workplace.
But imagine for once that it’s true. What are you going to do with all of that free time?
Read books? Write that novel? Record an album? Meet up with all the friends and family you’ve been abandoning because you’re just too busy?
As my friend grapples with healing again from a years-ago car accident, learning how to just move around her room, I can’t help but wonder, what is the meaning to all of this?
Why do we get so caught up in loyalty to a corporation? A corporation, by definition, has all the rights of a human, without that very large organ in its chest pumping blood and life through it.
No heart.
Today, I pledge allegiance to the entity with no heart, to serve the soulless and the corrupt, in order that I make a tiny buck.
I’ve never been one to keep up with a crowd. In school I went in and out of groups; refused to be defined.
Some writers and musicians are lone wolves; some aren’t. There’s really no definitive explanation for what we are or why we do it. Creativity comes from all areas and can’t be pegged down. People think different things about it.
I have many friends–and I’m sure you do too–who are super creative people, yet don’t draw, paint, write music or build things. They aren’t “conventionally” creative. They just are creative in the way that they think outside the box (divergent thinking again) and move through life, in the people they attract, in the way they express themselves through clothes, makeup, attitude or conversation.
I want to open up a dialogue about what creativity means to you. The word is used so much in this day and age it has become almost trite, cliché even. But there is a richness underneath the mere word that defies logical explanation. Creativity to some means original thought. To others it means devouring the greatest thoughts that came before you and translating them through your own expression because you believe that nothing on this earth is original. Two completely opposing views. Which one is yours?
