2024 10 30

Randyland. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. August, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

Previously, I wrote about the Rick Rubin book on creativity (see: 2024 03 27).

Today, a quote from the book popped into my feeds and I thought it was worth posting as a reminder to myself the sole reason I put time into this here blog.

“Living life as an artist is a practice. You are either engaging in the practice Or you’re not.

It makes no sense to say you’re no good at it. It’s like saying, “I’m not good at being a monk.” You are either living as a monk or you’re not.

We tend to think of the artist’s work as the output. The real work of the artist is a way of being in the world.”

— Rick Rubin

-Clayton

2024 07 04

Man jogs with dog. Image stitched together from multiple frames. Atlanta, Georgia. May, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

I’ve been kinda bumming since that presidential debate, I’m not going to lie. It’s probably a bit old school of me to think that a nation’s mood and direction can be set from a single person at the top. But I do think, at least for people like myself that pay attention to things as I do, that leadership starts at the top. When the guy currently in charge is so out of it he shouldn’t be there, let alone running for another four year term(!), and the other guy running actively hates the things you believe in and stand for as he slips deeper into a state of dementia, it kind of leaves you with little hope for the future.

I’m really not trying to get political here and make this about which side is right or wrong or whatever, but I think the shitshow playing out at the top is allowing me to see things around me in a different light. This light is not at all a good thing. It’s like blasting a high-powered blacklight into a musty motel room and unveiling all the previous schenanigans which have taken place in this room over the years. Social media becomes far more toxic than it already is and every post becomes hard evidence of the rotten state of our society. The world has lost some of its magic and I’m not seeing my photos like maybe I had in the recent past. They’re all just a bit bland and uninspired, like what’s the point of me wandering around snapping pictures of these things anyway?

Yikes, okay mister. Depressed, much? Surely, connecting my current mental downswing to national (er, global) politics might be a stretch, but I do very much think this shit weighs on us. I think it’s only natural to have swings of high and low mental states, and instead of shunning the hard times by pretending everything is fine, it’s better to notice the causes and to think deeper on them and try to better understand why you might be having these negative feelings. Is my work really this shit or am I just in a bad mood? Is it really all the Supreme Court of the United States’ fault or am I projecting here?

One piece of advice I would give myself is not to stew on it too much. In this regard, having this daily blog doesn’t much help — forcing myself to think and write about why I’m bummed in a public forum that can easily be misinterpreted. That said, a big part of why I started this blog was as a home for my creations. What makes me less bummed is getting out into the world, doing things, making things, experiencing things.

The other day I texted my friend some political thoughts while venting about the SCOTUS ruling, allowing presidents to act as kings, more or less. His response, along with a photo of his kids playing in a creek: Log off Twitter!

This is good advice. Enjoy the 4th.

-Clayton

Update: per always, Tim Kreider summed up much of my grumpy thoughts far better than I even could in his substack today, which you can and should read here.