First order of business: my birthday was awesome & I was shocked (to the point of a few tears) at how many people were sharing links to my art and buying prints from my webstore
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I sometimes look back and I'm not sure I remember what plan A was, or maybe it is the Plan B I believe I'm currently working. The things that life throws at you make your A & B flip-flop at times, but theres always a need to have that 2nd plan to fall back on. I think I'm still secretly devising a plan C. Complacency is a bitch.
Funny, I ended up at Plan A after putting in years of hard work with Plan B. I wouldn't have gotten that Plan A if it weren't for those PlanB years. You can't own a pony if you don't shovel some shit, you know?
I think this is just a part of the more overarching modern dialogue of "I DESERVE [x,y,z]!" (insert: vacation, dream job, rock star career, pony, etc). No, you don't.
Work hard and be present and become a whole person and dream good thoughts while also pursuing practical steps towards your ideal reality.
That's how you get there-radical self-reliance. Not by blindly jumping out and hoping for a net to catch you. I'd never rely on someOne or someThing for my net. It just seems foolish.
The Beat writers taught me a...similar lesson, maybe the same lesson with an anachronistic perspective. That being that...if you create with honesty, real painful honesty...then you pretty much have to be doing something else to support yourself. And if that's a hard labor job, or a mindless desk job, or a minimum wage job or whatever, that's fine. Because you work to keep food on the table and roof over your head, and you use that experience like all experiences...to further your art. And clocking in and out at a job doesn't make you any less of an artist...it's survival. Without a paycheck, regardless of where it comes from, your art will be sunk. So work...but at the same time, don't let it drain your soul. Be willing and open and wild about life, don't let yourself stagnate. It's not an easy life but like...since when was a good life easy?
This is why I take my instruction from people who lived fifty, sixty, seventy years ago. It just...makes more sense.
Thank you. It may be less romantic and more disappointing to the 16 year-olds we once were, but Plan B is a necessity for most of us. And even that doesn't work sometimes. I'm on about Plan D, right now, and maybe I can get back to Plan A eventually. But I'm aiming for Plan B, because Plan B means my wife can stick with her Plan A. And that means just as much to me as my Plan A does.
I'm already onto Plan B, planning for C and for D. A was go to uni, get a degree and a job I loved, and my own mental health fucked that one over.
B was come home, get a nice normal boring day job and pay of some debts. I'm trying to do that at the moment.
C is what I plan to do next, to move back out, support myself and create at night. When I applied for a barrista job I was asked if I could see myself in it long term. I honestly said yes, because actually I want a steady flow of income in the next few years to pay the rent and allow me to eat, because there's nothing more miserable than realising you can only eat one meal of pasta a day.
Maybe that's what everyone who says "fuck plan B' should be forced to do. Spend a month living like that.
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I think this is just a part of the more overarching modern dialogue of "I DESERVE [x,y,z]!" (insert: vacation, dream job, rock star career, pony, etc). No, you don't.
Work hard and be present and become a whole person and dream good thoughts while also pursuing practical steps towards your ideal reality.
That's how you get there-radical self-reliance. Not by blindly jumping out and hoping for a net to catch you. I'd never rely on someOne or someThing for my net. It just seems foolish.
Reply
This is why I take my instruction from people who lived fifty, sixty, seventy years ago. It just...makes more sense.
Reply
Reply
I'm already onto Plan B, planning for C and for D. A was go to uni, get a degree and a job I loved, and my own mental health fucked that one over.
B was come home, get a nice normal boring day job and pay of some debts. I'm trying to do that at the moment.
C is what I plan to do next, to move back out, support myself and create at night. When I applied for a barrista job I was asked if I could see myself in it long term. I honestly said yes, because actually I want a steady flow of income in the next few years to pay the rent and allow me to eat, because there's nothing more miserable than realising you can only eat one meal of pasta a day.
Maybe that's what everyone who says "fuck plan B' should be forced to do. Spend a month living like that.
Reply
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