“The breathtakingly wonderful thing about [art as a reaction to the artist] is its truthfulness. Look at your work and it tells you how it is when you hold back or when you embrace. When you are lazy, your art is lazy; when you hold back, it holds back; when you hesitate, it stands there starting, hands in its pockets. But when you commit, it comes on like blazes.” —David Bayles & Ted Orland, Art & Fear (1993).
To create is to be among the living. Without creativity, we are merely surviving the incredible world that surrounds us, desperately and always seeking an anesthetic to distract us from pain, hurt, boredom.
Creativity also demands a certain level of risk and facing our fears. Otherwise, we are likely to engage in the potentially disastrous distraction of comparison.
Comparison: A Closer Look
On its face, comparison is a win-lose situation that is a never ending cycle of defining and assessing superiority, seeking to draw distinctions between “us” and “them.” In a society that values competition, this may seem desirable. However, since the standards are subjective and ever-changing—at times by the minute—it is more accurate to say comparison is a lose-lose game, as one is easily a winner one moment and a loser the next.
By this standard, or lack thereof,1 we can’t possibly develop a healthy sense of self. If one determines their own inferiority, they are demoralized and often become self-destructive. For those of us that determine we are superior, we are possibly narcissistic and/or stagnant and failing to grow. In either case, there is no forward movement, and, left unchecked, it is ultimately the suffocation and slow death of self—it’s giving Artax in the Swamp of Sadness.
Comparison: Caine & Abel
Caine, jealous of Abel and unable to see the value in his own works, snuffs out Abel’s life. One takeaway then is that without an appreciation for our own creativity we, instead, give in to our capacity to harm others, as well as ourselves (i.e. lose-lose).
Inspiration & Innovation
Inspiration is about respect and appreciation. We see a positive attribute that we respect, and we are inspired. We use that inspiration to create (and innovate!). In doing so, we build up ourselves, we build up our communities, and we contribute, in our very own way, to the story of the world.
Closing Thought & One More Quote
It is my hope that we humans will continue to live, laugh, love, inspire, create, innovate, congregate, conjugate, procreate, and thrive.
“Every original act is a commitment to living.” —Anonymous
- Consider Ephesians 4:14 (NRSV) (“We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine…”). ↩︎
