The Importance of Being Artist

If a man or woman is creative, and ideas, as well as actions, pour forth the whole time, I know for a fact the world is a better place. We are not here for so very long on this planet - of ours? - and though these words smack of an over-tender idealism, it is none the less good to give a positive account of ourselves, especially if we are lucky enough to do so in a way that can give pleasure long after we are gone. Also, there is the atmosphere created by a person when they are unleashing their best creative juices. This atmosphere is intense, sometimes rigid, occasionally fraught, but also moment-enhancing, light-giving, granting every second a kind of spit-roast glory, and turning each breath into not just a shrewd investment but a pleasurable moment. If this sounds faintly spiritual, let us remember that even some of the hippies who grew out of the west coast of the Sixties were just as spiritual as they were creative. (And where, you wonder, is the peace movement now?) It may seem banal, especially in these greedier times, these protest-free times, to be thinking rosily of all those who preferred to withdraw from the rat race, those who lived on little, who raised families, almost entirely with creativity in mind. But they gave a pretty good account of themselves, too. Some went on to become global leaders. One of them owns most of the software I use. Many of the people leading the movement today towards a healthier planet acknowledge the Sixties as the place where their ideals germinated. In this day and age when you talk about people being creative, it is not unusual for the talk to be met with a cringe or a shrug. (Indeed, you may very well be cringeing now.) But when creativity is in pursuit of something essentially good, something restorative and tonic-like, like a sweet and plaintive moment with a violin, it takes a cruel man to knock it. There is also the self-compassion inherent in expression, which is not to be confused with self-love. I know songs written in pain which produce light, and I am familiar with paintings sourced from darkness which hundreds of years later continue to enlighten. No, the next time you do something creative, ask yourself, go on, how does it make you feel? (See.)