What Sustains You in Dark Times?

This has been a rough week thanks to the election, especially the election results. We’re on the verge of living under an authoritarian government of our own choosing. The insanity of it is staggering.

Yet, here I am with my newsletter about creativity, hoping someone will read it and whatnot.

Will it help anyone?

Maybe it will help someone. Maybe that someone is me.

I live by the credo that the world needs our authentic self to show up and take part in community. That’s how I figure out my fiction and humor: it’s all based on what I’ve witnessed, and how I’ve felt about those events.

When the world falls into darkness, it’s usually because a mob has abandoned their “self” in favor of an “other.” It can happen with small mobs, like a few fools out for an evening and, together, they make a series of increasingly bad decisions.

It also happens at the scale of countries, like when Germans elected Hitler, and when Americans elected Trump. Listening to hate and fear, they chose the mob.

Artists rarely choose the mob.

When we’re little kids, and we play with things, we are artists. Art is about playing. Art is about trying things without worrying about mistakes. Art is about learning from the mistakes.

More than anything, art is about taking joy from doing our art—even if the “art” is making rainbow snowmen with Playdoh.

As I’ve said elsewhere on this site, the world forces many of us away from art. It starts around junior high, and continues through most of our formal education. Then, as adults, we’re accosted with so much entertainment to consume, few of us think about making our own art.

I know it’s unlikely everyone will want to be an artist, but it sure would be nice if more of us fought a little harder to be an artist.

If you’re reading this, you probably have an interest in doing your art.

If you’re like me, you may be a little stressed out about the future, and a little exhausted from the recent past.

I haven’t done any significant art the past two weeks, but I’m ready to start again.

I’m looking forward to doing my art as a source of joy.

I’m also looking forward to subverting the mob by bringing my authentic self to my art, and bearing witness to what I see in the world.

Now, more than ever, we must face darkness with love, hope and grace.

Don’t let the bastards grind you down.