Creative block

Hey there

It's official: I have run out of things to say to my very minute audience, which may have contributed to my lack of desire to open up Google docs for almost three weeks. If this were to be my final article for the year, for the next decade, for as long as the wings of death will allow my feeble existence its roots undisturbed, I would term it a good run. And I can honestly say that throughout this very short journey, there have been no bad days, none that I can think of. Because when I get a chance to pore through all I've written and published, It just seems quite like a cringe note written by a madman. But yet the magnitude of praise that has poured in over the past few months has been truly mind-blowing, and sometimes I get borderline emotional that maybe I might just be doing something right for the first time. Still, I'm under no illusions that with such adulation comes expectation, and with every single month that passes I go on to ask myself, “well, what next?”. I honestly wish I knew the answer to that one, but the one thing I know is that I won't throw in the towel just yet or for at least another month. I'm clinging on to hope that it stays this way for the foreseeable future.

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I've never been truly "creative" in the real sense of the word, it just comes when it comes and leaves when it wants. Although there are moments that leave you stunned at your ingenuity as would many others across all strata of life, that's all they really are, moments, light bulb moments. And we should never disregard these lightbulb moments as they more or less give birth to the innovation that we see today, the pieces of art that decorate museums across the world, and the timeless literature that spans generations. But even with these moments and I've had my fair share of them, I have observed that my bit of creativity only comes to the fore when I get stuck in with the task. And that's quite ironic seeing as I just spent the last three weeks waiting like a monk for my creative self or maybe someone in the trinity to give me a moment or just a word, maybe a thousand words would have been stretching it. Still, they barely gave me a letter. But, maybe that lull in proceedings might just have given me a story where I thought there was none.

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Amid the buzz surrounding the brand new iPhone models with their isles, still very much priced out of my financial reach for the 10th year running, I stumbled on a website called the Steve Jobs archives, a set of quotes that minutely describes the man who was always at the helm of provoking change from the late 70s till his death in 2011. It made me wonder a little, what Steve would make of Apple today or the world of innovation in the year 2022. That doesn’t mean they are doing anything below par, Apple’s numbers are staggering, they have largely not compromised on the ideals of Steve to have a closed system, and believe it or not, they are constantly redefining the way that we live our lives, but all of it just seems deeply steeped in consumerism and don't reflect a group of people that once upon a time, were willing to "think different". And though it seems like I am taking small potshots at the biggest company in the world, my biggest bone of contention lies with my own generation. Not to scorn them, not to set aside all our work to break down barriers and improve the quality of life on earth, and not to disregard our peculiar struggles, but it just seems we prefer iterating over creating. What happened to us? I mean look at me searching for a thousand words over a period of thirty days, What happened to us? 

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As I write today, willing myself on to a deadline that seemed so realistic at the start of the month. I look through our histories, and I see the creative mind at work whether it be a Wilbur or a Shakespeare, in science or in art, in action or in word, there was always a need to bring into the world something out of nothing. Sometimes the world was not ready for It, they did not have the required tools or mental capacity to grasp this new "burden" they were saddled with until several years later. But that is the beauty of it all, we laughed off air travel at the beginning of the 20th century and then sent men to the moon 60 years later. I can't imagine what it must have felt like to be seen writing up plays or painting up a Mona Lisa 500 years ago when all that was required was just to live and die. Now we have Digital monkeys and more New York best sellers than actual New yorkers but progress is progress. 

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Maybe we think the world can't really go up a gear again. As a species, it seems maybe we have reached the summit of civilization and there is only one way we are destined to go, down into the doldrums of depression and climate change litigation. What was the point of all the giant strides we made to get here? Maybe I'm naive, maybe too hung up on what should be instead of accepting what is, but I think there is more to us. Beyond the canvas or with a pen, there has to be a quicker way we save our planet before nature gives up on us. There has to be a way we improve *transportation without resorting to flying cars because I promise you, I will shoot them out of the sky. There is a vast majority that believes human endeavor is at an end, I say we are not just brave enough to see beyond today.

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*Something I found quite interesting

Culdesac is a startup that seeks to create car free neighborhoods and hence thereby reduce carbon emissions caused by fuel powered vehicles.

Till next time