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Creative people are often considered crazy, but I believe crazy can be a good thing.
About a month ago, a friend of mine told me he doesn’t have a ‘creative bone in his body’. It was a strange statement considering he might be one of the smartest people I know, but he wanted an opinion on some recent artwork installed at his house and that wasn’t the time for a longer conversation. Since then I’ve been thinking about that comment, partly because of his modesty, but also because I used to feel the same way.
He reminded me of when I had a different perspective on artists. For instance, Van Gough and Edward Weston were probably the first two I ever read about. Now it isn’t clear why, but back then I found accounts of their friendships and loves most interesting. In my mind those artists were aware of the history that would follow, so the dysfunction in their lives seemed strange to me, too.
Nowadays because of the Internet’s growth and its prominence of the media, we talk about people like Kanye and Dave Chappelle because there is so much information out there about them being a little ’eccentric’ and, well, we like them for it.
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Trees
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I write a lot about being alone and suffering through the discounted isolation of living. Despite that reality, its function is different — we still navigate life among others. My acceptance of them is often reluctant, but I'm trying to gain a fitter wisdom.
Anyway. It’s not something I’m proud of, but until recently none of these people have ever seemed real to me. Maybe you’ve felt it too, but in the past I thought there was something mystical about obviously creative people — as if their problems were special because of their creativity, or that they had different kinds of relationships than me.
Things changed when I stopped thinking of creativity, among other human attributes, as gifts and realized all admirable qualities are the product of work. It’s really that simple. Thinking of it that way really equalizes us all — it also means that through a different perspective we are able to admire many more people and better empathize with them.
While walking through the woods recently with two friends talking about life, creative plans, and whatever, I thought about the few people who recently spoke as if creativity was for them basically unattainable. What must they think of themselves in other contexts, and how limited do they really feel? But most of all, what about life taught them the useless habit of comparison.