Epiphanies are like assholes, everybody has one and everyone thinks his is special.
There's one for the bathroom mirror, before which epiphanies commonly occur. Vulgar, yes. I tried writing it without the "asshole," but it doesn't work.
Here's why: "Asshole," is the humbling part, the undeniable, dirty, human reality. It forces us to admit that we are like every other human being. We all think our ideas are special, and unique.
Guess what. (drumroll) They are not.
I've talked about this before, on this blog and in convention rooms. I cannot emphasize enough how the grasp of this concept improves my life and my work. I say 'improves' instead of 'improved' because this sort of revelation is not easily mastered. These concepts are not tattoos and they can't be memorized like phone numbers.
They have to be integrated and exercised to become part of the dynamic of how we think and so can be applied to our approach to creating---and living.
So. Ideas.
.....are like assholes.
When I apply the above, I understand that every idea that occurs to me doesn't have to become a project. (You know what I'm talking about.) That every idea doesn't need to be written down. That it's not up to me and me alone to impart this particular wisdom to the world. It's a group effort. If I don't catch this one, someone else will. I let lots of mental clutter go.
I take a big, deep mental breath and let it out slowly. (Actually, while I'm at it, I take a big, deep physical breath and exhale slowly.) I hone in and focus on what I'm working on now. I didn't make this up. It's old stuff, been said countless different ways. This is, at best, a reminder to myself and a framework I hope you'll help me fill in.
For we are indeed silly humans, stumbling toward the light.
9 comments:
THANK YOU!! This is one of those freeing reminders that makes space for the work to continue.
I'm with you on this one Lisa...
Stay focused and QUIT HUNCHING! :)
Love ya!
Bent.
I think I'm still absorbing this. It's human nature to want to be the center of our own little universe, and to also doggedly hang on to our ideas with all our might. I know I waltz around in the real world with a tremendous amount of mental clutter. Mondays are my "decompress" day, where I play, and putter around, and get things done here (or not.)
The link to your previous posts on this blog is, how shall I say, not disturbing, but thoughtful? concerning? hard to say. I did read them, am thinking of them, and am very thankful that I don't often go to those dark places and find myself there.
As far as the hunching... we could write a book about that. I treat so much of it in my work, I spend a lot of time contemplating all the reasons why we do it. I'm convinced that "monkey on my back," is more relevant than we realize.
wv is a real word! "spate" as in: sudden and overwhelming outpouring or overflowing. A nice bit of word synchronicity. And now I have a sudden and overwhelming urge to go listen to The Police.
Miss Bliss: making space is a good thing. good on you.
Bent: even my hunching is hunching
Stacey: I meant the link to go to only the one post "how to kill an idea." You got some serious additional reading in there. I'll be interested indeed to hear your thoughts, when you're ready. (I fixed the link) And give us some good anti-hunching advice!! I'll be sending out copies of the "stop hunching" sign with this month's Poppets
This came at exactly the right time for me. What a reminder to stop taking myself so seriously and to allow myself to not bear the weight of the world! In our home we call it "trudging", but I think that it's much the same, and it's no way to go through life.
There are two things I'm always fighting with "sense of urgency" and "scope control"
In my head the ideas bat themselves around like moths competing to be closest to the light. And sometimes they burn out or disintegrate, or they weren't really moths, they were wisps.
And sometimes I think they are moths but they're really flames themselves, no matter what I do they burn there and I feel like if I don't do something with them they will burn through me. I wonder what the mirror saying is for those ideas?
I'm always afraid to go near them. To let them loose will mean something and I'm not sure my skillset is strong enough not to distort them.
But sometimes it is simple - Just because I can execute the idea, doesn't mean I should. Thus the scope control. The Embassy Project is the proof - I've determined what I'm willing to commit to, it's more than I started with, but it means I can finish it. Sometimes letting go of an idea leaves the soil free there so the other ideas can flourish.
Most of my real life job is helping choose which ideas can be let go for other people so they can work and succeed.
But the burning ideas that sometimes look like moths - those are mine, and I'm not sure if they're part of my "real life" - I struggle with those.
(And I've noticed I'm hunching at my desk . . . .)
I can see here that I need to write an "anti-hunching 101" here. Of course, I can only really address the physical aspects of hunching, and how to anti-hunch. You all will have to remove your own monkeys.
Soon. Soon, my pretties.
There is a trick that actors and dancers use. Stand up straight, have a friend put an eight inch strip of masking tape on your back between your shoulder blades, Every time you start to slouch you will feel the pull between your shoulder blades and straighten up your posture.
Bad for hairy backs - good for doing for about a week to improve your posture.
Not sure that will help with 8 hour days at computer at work though, since I'm collapsing into my lower back Maybe I should try the tape vertically?
So, whatever happened to your ratty houseguest?
And I had a question that I thought someone else might need to ask at some point - having recently received my lovely little rainflower poppet, I sadly discovered that one of the flower petals had broken off in transit. It's a clean break, and I'm wondering what sort of glue-like substance you recommend for a bit of floral surgery....(it's the petal in the back; even so, if it doesn't look perfect, I'll tell everyone it was my fault and not the artiste's).
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