I've been a very bad blogger. And I'd like to sincerely apologize to all my loyal followers. Please forgive me, all three of you. Funny how writing for a living makes you not want to do it in your spare time.
I suppose it's a good sign that I haven't posted since last October. It means I've been booked pretty solid since then and from what I'm hearing around the country, that is indeed a lucky thing. But now, summer is in full swing and with it comes the predictable summer drought. New business pitches come to a halt, people go on vacation and clients retreat into that heat-induced fog that makes them forget they have to spend their budgets by the end of year.
In late August or early September, there will be a mad scramble to get ads created, approved and produced by year-end. But until then, I will have several weeks in which I am free to do nothing but obsess over my as-yet unfulfilled creative goals. Written the great American novel? No. Performed my one-woman show? Uh-uh. Finished re-caulking the guest bathroom and replacing the cracked tiles I took out more than six weeks ago? Not even that. Wow, I suck.
I find it fascinating then, that the instant I write these words God sends me a very pointed message to STFU. As I sit typing on my patio, a postal employee in an official USPS truck and uniform stops at our curbside recycle bin and proceeds to collect my husband's multitude of empty beer cans.
At that moment, I am struck not only with the realization that the post office is in much worse shape than I imagined, but also that I am an ungrateful bitch.
My friend Mr Maslow might argue that I am, if nothing else, human. According to his famous hierarchy, it is only after our basic needs are satisfied that we can focus on our higher-order creative desires. If that's true, however, society should experience a collective burst of creativity during times of economic prosperity. The eighties, for instance. And we all know how that went.
On the flip side, in times of economic hardship, there should be no art at all. And if it were true, it would be one more thing we could blame on the freaking S&L scandal. But I don't see it. I'm seeing creativity springing up as the result of the bad economy, not in spite of it. I see people and agencies solving problems in more non-traditional ways, for less money and in less time. And I am heartened to see ordinary people reinventing themselves and the entire ad industry in response.
But Maslow's basic point holds true: it seems much harder to be creative when you're worried about paying the mortgage or, say, eating. If you're an ad agency, it's the kind of thing that might make you give up your creative principles in order to keep the client happy and keep the lights on. If you're an individual, it might make you ignore your artistic pastimes in order to pursue more income. It's a balancing act whether you're a company or just one person. Security is the springboard and creativity takes you to new heights. But the most important thing to know is that fear is the enemy of both.
Today I learned an important lesson from my can-picking postal worker. Be scrappy. And when you see an opportunity, seize it. Because who know? It may be just what you need to take that next step.
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