For The Young Who Want To

For The Young Who Want To To Live a Creative Lifefound via Michael R. Faddis When my dear friend Deirdre (who was my Partner in Crime at my last day job, leaving the department    a week prior to me to volunteer in Thailand yes, this post is about her) put this poem up on her blog last month, I read it and reread it and sighed and nodded and agreed. I think its for any creative, for all creatives, for artists of all shapes and sizes to hold on to, to validate, to empower. For The Young Who Want To by Marge Piercy Talent is what they say you have after the novel is published and favorably reviewed. Beforehand what you have is a tedious delusion, a hobby like knitting. Work is what you have done after the play is produced and the audience claps. Before that friends keep asking when you are planning to go out and get a job. Genius is what they know you had after the third volume of remarkable poems. Earlier they accuse you of withdrawing, ask why you don’t have a baby, call you a bum. The reason people want M.F.A.’s, take workshops with fancy names when all you can really learn is a few techniques, typing instructions and some- body else’s mannerisms is that every artist lacks a license to hang on the wall like your optician, your vet proving you may be a clumsy sadist whose fillings fall into the stew but you’re certified a dentist. The real writer is one who really writes. Talent is an invention like phlogiston after the fact of fire. Work is its own cure. You have to like it better than being loved. Not to discount those who worked long and hard to get those degrees I know they dont come cheaply or easily but dont let your lack of one stop you. When youre a creative, sometimes all thats measurable is the hours youve spent devoted to your craft/ passion/ business (whatever you wanna call it). Stop saying it doesnt count, or its not enough, or youre not professional or qualified or educated. You are. It counts. ***************************************************************************************** I’m now offering my illustrated career change workbook â€" it rhymes!  Take a peek if your career’s givin’ ya tough times!