Monday, July 11, 2016

Muse is Snoozin' (Or on Strike Due to General Awfulness)

A slump is like a soft bed: easy to get into, hard to get out of. Unlike a soft bed, a big push never seems to break me free of a slump. Sometimes I give in to it for a while, and let it break on its own. Other times I need to get myself over it, and what works for that is baby steps. I break down tasks in to the smallest possible bites ("Buy paraffin.Turn on wax pan. Dip pot bottoms.") and get a few of the tiny steps completed. Sometimes it generates enough momentum to get me out of the slump, but even when it doesn't getting something done, rather than nothing, it always preferable.

This happens to me, this inertia, when particularly awful things happen in the world, and we here in the US had a horrifying last week. It feels so pointless to work. I want to do something to help, to make the world kinder, but all I can do is watch helplessly.

Well: watch, and vote. Voting still matters.

I guess maybe everyone is feeling like this, and we all get up and we go to work and we do what needs to be done. I just hope we all, when given the choice, choose kindness. Online or IRL, choose love.

Anyway. Hoping for a better week.


3 comments:

smartcat said...

I won't say misery loves company because I believe that un happy people generally bring out the worst in each other! But it has been a slumpy kind of summer.
You are so right, baby steps help. I also find that giving myself a small creative assignment helps.

Lagrotto said...

It's easy to feel, that our day to day tasks aren't enough. That our art and food and small worries are a waste of time when a week like this one comes along. But they end up being the most important thing. Losing hope puts people in a position where they'll accept any lie as truth. Losing art makes people think they aren't worth a beautiful world. Your small steps help fight the poverty of imagination and creativity that America suffers from. It needs small beauty and small truths to fight against the great tragedies we currently face. Keep up the good work.

Lori Watts said...

Lagrotto, thank you. This is beautiful.