The Journal of Joe The Peacock. Yay.

7.11.2006:

1:26 AM

"What does it matter?"

Right.

Have you ever created anything?

I mean, really CREATED something. Not the transformation of form from one state to another, like "creating" ice from water or that thing you create about 4 times a day due to the natural processes of digestion. I'm talking here about starting with nothing - blank canvas, blank paper, blank video, blank audio tape, a lump of clay, whatever - and creating something from it.

And not just something, but SOMETHING.

Yes?

And how much did you care about your creation? Hmm?

How much of your heart; of your soul did you put into the process of development? Did you treat it with the love and devotion that Leonardo treated his Mona Lisa with? Did you pour your soul into it the way Maceo Parker does when he blows the soul out of his horn? Do you agonize over every mistake and feel sheer and utter joy over every success, no matter how minute - the way a cartoonist does when he finally - FINALLY - gets that hand to look exactly how he wants it to for that frame?

If you have, you know what I'm talking about. If you haven't...

Imagine if you will that you are suddenly in the middle of an ocean - not a lake, not some pool or stream or inlet or gulf, but a fully-fledged ocean.

Ocean. We get this, right? A MASSIVE body of water, where there is absolutely no sign of any land or form on the horizon in any direction - and won't be for weeks or months or years, depending on how hard you end up paddling.

Now, imagine you begin swimming for shore. Take this seriously - look at a clock right now, and begin imaginging swimming a stroke every two to three seconds in salt water all by yourself.

How long can you keep that up? The imagining, I mean. A minute? Maybe five?

Now, what if you really were out there, swimming like an insane person, for WEEKS - every single second of every single day for five, ten, twenty... Up to 100 weeks at a time, unsure if you will even GET to land much less what you're going to look like in the process of getting there or what you'll end up dragging to shore along with you when it's time.

That's a small glimpse of what I'm talking about: Starting with nothing in the middle of nowhere and getting somewhere with it, spending large - VERY LARGE - amounts of time doing it.

So, now that you have a bit of a mental image of what I'm trying to get at, you might better understand why someone who's been through this process and has created - from nothing - something that they care very, very, very much about would get just a tiny bit aggrevated when they begin the very arduous process of attempting to show the world what it is they have created and end up being asked, "What does it matter?"

What does it matter?

It's ALL that matters.

* * *

(Permalink)