Isn’t it funny, in the saddest possible meaning, that we live in a world where our natural abilities are so overlooked and pushed aside? I mean, having a “regular” day job, whatever that means, is celebrated more than anything else and held above any hippie nonsense such as allowing people to be whatever they are best at.
I’m good at two things; writing songs and making drawings, but those two things are probably at the bottom of all the things I do in a day. My wife takes awesome pictures with her iPhone. If she had the money to buy a real camera or even get an education in photography I know she could go far. I have coworkers who are painters, sculptors, weavers and woodworkers but we all spend 8 hours/day at our day job.
Imagine if the world would let us do what we do best.
Sometimes I think about what I could have achieved if I was allowed to use my creativity to the fullest. I don’t know about others, but I know for me, it’s like my brain evolves when I am allowed to explore those part where I use the creativity that I have in me. I know I have it in me, for example, to make music for a movie. I know that the more I get to explore the creative nooks and crannies in my brain, the more stuff I find hiding in there and at times where I am allowed to really dig deep,I kind of amaze myself with the things I come up with…and the more time I spend just working a regular job, the more I feel like that’s all slipping away from me.
Do you know what I mean?
There’s a sequence of songs on my first album, “For All Happy Endings”, that I wrote in, I think, 2 days. I was in some sort of creative haze and the melodies just slipped out of my head, into my guitar and piano and came out just great. If you care to look it up, the sequence I think about are “Divine”, “Something, Not Sunlight”, “Song Against Life” and “Belly Full of Butterflies”. I remember those days and how amazing the feeling was, being allowed to fully emerge in my creativity, how rewarding the feeling to see what I could achieve…
In my work with color pencils I am constantly surprised by the drawings I am able to do when I have a little time and peace of mind to actually sit down and work for a couple of days.





Why in the world are we all supposed to give our life away to a day job when all the combined skills and creativity of people could change the world – and I know it could – if we were only allowed to really utilize it…?
I think about these things a lot.
Does anyone else?