Creativity and the Cabinet of Curiosities
On rejecting the cult of artistic martyrdom and embracing the sacredness of the work itself.
I can make my creativity into a killing field, or I can make it into a really interesting cabinet of curiosities.
— Elizabeth Gilbert, Big Magic
Creativity has always been about curiosity for me. My adolescence took place before social media, YouTube channels, and online influencers. I spent hours upon hours writing and recording music on a multi-track digital recorder just because I enjoyed the process. I’d take long walks through the neighbor's farm taking detailed photos of my surroundings because it felt magical.
Very few people ever heard those songs I wrote and recorded. Almost no one saw the photos I took. In fact, I think most of those songs and photos have been lost to old hard drives and outdated technology.
And I feel no loss knowing that those things have been lost because it was never about the final product anyway. It often felt like it was. I’d re-record things over and over again to get them to sound how I wanted. I’d test out all sorts of settings to get the perfect photo I imagined. But in hindsight, those endeavors were more about what feelings and emotions the act of creating produced in me.
