The Counter-Cultural Habit of Creation

Have you noticed that the expression "it's a dog-eat-dog world" doesn't feel like it fits any more? When I think of a "dog-eat-dog" world, I imagine cut-throat competitive debonair businessmen and women clawing their way up the ladder in the daylight and stabbing their coworkers in the back by night. A touch dark maybe, but when one's only fixation was to provide for one's family by any means necessary, it makes a little more sense.

Our current cultural situation feels a little different: the competition is elsewhere. Politics, culture wars, sports, and even fandoms demand our first-world allegiances, and most people's jobs feel more like a chore than an outlet for ambition and competition.

So where do our ambitions go? Well, to continue the already stretched metaphor, I would say there are far too many tempting bones lying around for a dog to work up its appetite for anything else.

We live in a world of non-stop consumption. I have lived days in which the daisy chain of stimulation has carried me from my first waking moments all the way to my first second asleep. I don't need to make a list - you already know what kinds of convenient, incredible, and all-consuming distractions I'm talking about. For a picture book illustrator like me, it's a buffet of inspiration; but more often than not, inspiration erodes into mindless digital noshing. I think most of you reading know what I'm talking about. For some (like myself), modern living leaves one feeling like a dulled, screen-fatigued blob. And in Fort Wayne, Indiana in late January, there isn't aren't many places to hide from one's own lethargy and cabin fever.

That's why today, writing from my drafty, dark office at the edge of a midwestern iceberg, I want to encourage all of you to fight against the urge to exist as solely a consumer. Push back against the pull to check out. Make something new for others or just you to enjoy. What relaxes you? What stokes a fire in your belly? What gives you newfound life? Christian teaching urges us as humans to create in the same way the God of the cosmos creates. Agree or disagree, reader, you cannot deny the innate urge to build something with your own hands - to put the last piece on your Lego construction, to splash watercolor across a blank piece of paper, even something as simple as digging a hole can spark the joy and satisfaction of making a thing.

Creation can even be mentally restorative in some situations. I was floored to hear my dear friend Emily has been crocheting and knitting her way through great tragedy. Emily writes about a contemplative state that comes from really focusing on a singular thing, and I couldn't agree more - who hasn't gone and done yard work when they've felt frustrated? It's borderline instinct to work with your hands to help sort out the state of the heart.

On a personal note, since late August of last year, there has been a looming cloud over my brain, one that began with a friend's family tragedy and has been sustained by toxic election fumes and proverbial doors slammed in my face. But in November, I spurred myself to write. I've had a graphic novel idea in my back pocket for a few years, and it has been such a joy to write and create without any ambition, timeline, or goal. Ironically, in some ways it's been a more productive endeavor than most of my projects. More importantly, it's given me something to chew on, something to toy with, something that's helping me think more instead of less. I encourage you all find something that does the same for you.

It's hard to want to make something when being able to read, listen to, or watch something better is always an option. If you know what that feels like, I have a message for you: if you believe that making something can compete for your calendar against endless free entertainment, think twice. You must defend your creative time, or it will erode away into something less rich. If organizational tools help, I have a few tips written here. If you don't know where to start with a creative project, you've come to the right place. I have a blog written about capturing an idea as well as refining an idea into something others can enjoy.

As always I deeply appreciate your presence here. Consider subscribing down below so you are notified the next time my porch door swings open. Until then, safe travels.