On my refrigerator is a magnet that says, "Leap and the net will appear." I'm hugely fond of this idea - that if you just Go For It! - the universe will support you somehow. But I'm having a great deal of trouble putting it into practice. There are all these things that I want to do (or claim I want to do) that, instead, languish in various stages of disarray. In some cases, I can understand this. A book, however godawful, is a large undertaking, so fine, I can be a bit intimidated. But what about some of the godawful short stories? I can fit the entirety of their plots in my little brain all at once, and yet, I don't fix them, don't finish them, let them rot unpolished and decidedly unpublished.
I could go on a long psychological harangue on how I'm a commitment-phobe and afraid of failure, blah, blah, blah. All that's true, but really, what will it take for me to just suck it up and do something other than what I positively have to do in order to be able to survive? I mean, I want more than subsistence creativity, but I settle for the bare minimum, the burst of words or painting or fumbled guitar chords that gets me through without gaining me any ground. Art is craft, and craft takes practice, time, practice, practice, practice. The view from this plateau was lovely when I first stopped to rest, but how much more resting do I need? Am I really this lazy?
Maybe you are currently in the net and it requires just a tiny tremor to shake it up a bit. Maybe the net is all around you, always supporting you, and so it doesn't require a leap, as much as just a jiggle?
ReplyDeletePerhaps this comment is evidence that I should lay off the "bold" Starbucks for a while?
I'm thinking the bold is a good plan, as I like the notion that like that the net is all around.
ReplyDelete