Week 3

Dear Reader,

Before I begin, I just have something to say to myself of two weeks ago.

Dear Ora from two weeks ago,

This is Ora of today. I know you’re probably not going to read this because you don’t exist anymore, but I’m writing to you anyway because I’m not really sure if time exists so maybe you’ll somehow receive this message. I just wanted to tell you to go fuck yourself for starting this blog.

Congratulations! You’ve publicly committed to writing a weekly blog and you were too stupid to realize that you’d be completely ready to give up after two weeks. But that’s my problem now.

And now, back to our regularly scheduled programing:

I had a lot of trouble writing something I can share this week. I’m not having trouble writing. I’m having trouble sharing. I wanted this space to be a haven for me and my readers, but it’s challenging to maintain safe emotional spaces when there is violence in the immediate vicinity.

I said in my first post that fear is directly oppositional to creativity, but I was talking about fear of creativity. Fear of violence can make creativity feel pointless. I am not going to address or discuss any specific current events or state any opinions. I do not feel comfortable doing that publicly.

I will say that I wish every person on this planet would put a serious effort into to making ‘human being’ their number one identifier, and the first identifier they attribute to everyone around them. Not religion, not nationality, not skin color, or gender, or anything else. We all need to be human first and see others as human before anything else. I don’t know how that can happen; I just know that’s what I want. I needed to say that, and now I will move on as if nothing terrifying is happening in the world.

***

I have a weird relationship with structure. Some people crave structure. I seem to repel it. At the same time, I see its value; even for me. Some of my favorite experiences in life only existed because of some kind of structure I was either forced or chose to take part in.

My Sunday morning art classes from my childhood are a good example. I asked my parents to put me in an art class and I loved my teacher and my classmates. But I still spent nearly every Sunday morning looking for excuses to get out of it. I guess battling myself to be actively creative is not a new thing.

Creativity requires some structure. Most worthwhile creations involve editing, choices, and exclusions. I need to create a bit more structure here in my blog in terms of what I am committing to. I said I would write once a week, but I think I need to give myself a timeline. I’ve decided on 12 weeks. That seems like a solid amount of time. If I want to continue after that I can, but if I don’t, especially during weeks like this one when I really don’t want to share, I can at least see an end to this structure I chose to bound myself in.

It's scary to put structure around creativity because it forces you to capture ideas or beliefs, but ideas and beliefs are fluid. We are living creatures which means we are always changing. Ideally, we’re growing and evolving, but sometimes we are shrinking and devolving. We can’t avoid change.

It seems the most effective way to share thoughts and ideas is through structures. We can’t share something with another person if we don’t put it in some kind of container from which they can receive it. Words are containers.

Committing to certain words is scary because I know when I speak or write words to contain my ideas I can just as easily find something inside me that directly disagrees or contradicts whatever point I’m expressing. It’s hard to commit to certain ideas and beliefs when I know that there is a near infinite number of perspectives and contexts that I am completely unaware of.

Why pursue creativity and sharing at all? Firstly, I think expression, or releasing what gets bottled inside us is essential to our mental and physical wellbeing. Secondly, maybe expressing and sharing with others is how we help each other find happiness and meaning.

I think there is a shared consciousness when it comes to creativity. You hear about artists all over the world who have nothing to do with one another and living very different lives creating shockingly similar work. When I posted my first blog I breathed a sigh of relief and then went to listen to my favorite podcast Roll On. That week Rich Roll was interviewing music producer Rick Rubin who was promoting his new book, “The Creative Act: A Way of Being." It was a fabulous episode and the book sounds really interesting.

Mostly I was blown away because I felt like so many of the ideas I touched on in my blog post were so similar to things discussed on the podcast. It was to the point where I thought to myself, “gosh, if anyone listened to this podcast and then read my blog they would probably think I ripped this off.” I swear, I didn’t.

The idea that there is a common energy that pulsates through the universe and through each and every person in it is something I choose to believe in. Some of our beliefs we choose ourselves, and others are handed down to us. I think it’s important that we examine our beliefs and reexamine them regularly. Especially the ones that are inherited.

Belief in and of itself contains power. Just look at the placebo effect. Sometimes what’s “real” is less effective than what we believe is real. So, make sure your beliefs are working for you and the betterment of mankind, because you are connected to everyone.