Do It Anyway!

So, you're a storyteller. Or a poet. Or you like to paint. Or tickle the ivories. 

"Well, no," you say, "I just dabble." I'm not really good enough to call myself a writer/artist/potter/dancer/tuba player. I just amuse myself." 

There's a creative spark--perhaps in everyone--that wants to burn right through our hard-working, bill-paying, duty-bound exteriors. A spark that causes us to lay aside the piece for our piano lesson and play a song we just made up. Or to look up from a spread sheet and think about a character in a story we'd like to write, if we ever get the time.

But maybe you don't play or write or sing or dance or cook brilliantly. Maybe you're kind of mediocre. Like me.

There are two ways to look at it.

One, you might be mediocre on your way to being brilliant. In that case, you should keep doing it so you can grow your talent, develop your style, get a little better each day.

Or two, maybe you will never amount to much as an accordion player, seamstress, sculptor, or juggler of flaming batons. You're not gonna be the next American Idol or a guest concert pianist with the Boston Symphony. Your painting may never hang in the Louvre.  Your song may never top the Billboard charts.

In that case, you should keep doing it anyway, as long as you enjoy it, or it helps you relax, or it annoys certain people you'd like to annoy!

I don't play the piano that well, but doodling on the keyboard is a great way to untangle my thoughts when I'm writing. We don't have to be good at everything. Sometimes it's okay to just have fun. Really! 

Go ahead and slop some paint on a canvas. So what if you're forty-two and your mom is still asking, "What is it?" You can hang your masterpiece on your own refrigerator. Play that song one-handed on the keyboard. If Grandpa asks you to stop, threaten to put him in a home. (Just kidding, Gramps.)

Knit that lop-sided baby blanket. Spread your craft supplies all over the floor. Play those three chords on the guitar. Make some noise. Make a mess. Make a fool of yourself, dancing along with So You Think You Can Dance. Take a risk. Try something new.

You don't have to know how to do the thing you love to do. A friend who plays improv piano brilliantly once told me, "I don't really know how to play the piano." And I knew just what he meant. 

He doesn't know how. He couldn't draw a diagram of where his fingers should be at any given point in the song. It's a sort of a dance of the fingers across the keys, and there's a bit of a mystery about how it happens. It would be such a strain on the brain to have to pre-plan every note, every harmony, every ornament. Not knowing how is actually more fun.

Finding a creative outlet may or may not make you a great singer, tap-dancer or trapeze artist. But it will make you a happier person. And that will make you better at everything else, like doing your job or raising a family. And you will have a secret identity as an arteest.

Doesn't matter if you aren't good enough or you don't know how or you don't do it right or Aunt Matilda Louise disapproves. 

Do it anyway!

The Muses

So you’re soaking in the bubble bath, singing “Do Wah Ditty Ditty” and washing between your toes. 

You’re thinking about what to make for dinner, broccoli or asparagus—you can’t make asparagus amandine without almonds, but the broccoli gives your husband gas—when suddenly it comes from nowhere. 


An idea. An idea not related to bubbles or bathtubs or dinner or Do Wah. 

Roman mosaic of a Muse

It’s an idea about how to fix the squeak in the ceiling fan.


Or how to redecorate your office with a steam punk theme.


Or, if you're a writer, how to end the story you've been working on for three years this April. It’s so obvious now. The tsar must die, but only after revealing the identity of his true heir. . .Boris, the one-eyed taxidermist from Smolensk.


Where do ideas come from--those moments when the light bulb goes on and the tumblers click? The ancient Greeks attributed inspiration to nine ladies called The Muses.

L to R, Clio (history), Thalia (comedy), Erato (love poetry), Euterpe (song), Polyhymnia (sacred music),
Calliope (epic poetry), Terpsichore (dance), Urania (astronomy), and Melpomene (tragedy)

The Muses were the nine daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne,  Goddess of Memory, and they were said to inspire artistic creation. These gals, who apparently all had a hefty trust fund in the First Bank of Olympus, whiled away their hours playing instruments, watching dramas, and learning the latest dance steps. Whenever they took a notion, they would confer inspiration upon mortal men.


The Muses suggest that the ancient Greeks had these ideas about inspiration:

• Ideas come from outside ourselves, from Heaven.
• There is a feminine quality to inspiration.
• Inspiration is related to memory.

The Muse of Poesey
by Konstantin Makovsky

The Muses also tell us which disciplines the Romans considered to be inspired, since the Romans later gave the Muses their names and assignments: history, comedy, love poetry, songs, hymns, epic poetry, dance, astronomy, and tragedy. What a fascinating list--both for what is included and what isn't.

Personally, I think the ancients were on to something with the Muses. As a story-maker, I know that stories are built partly from my memory and experience, but not entirely. There is something else. My experience is the kindling, but kindling needs a spark to set it ablaze, and that spark of inspiration is a gift.

Fool that I am, sometimes I try to light the creative fire all by myself. Did you ever rub two sticks together in a pouring rain? That's what it's like. 

Marc Chagall - Offering of Elijah

Kind of reminds me of the time the prophets of Baal were screaming and cursing and dancing around their altar, trying to call down fire. Result: epic fail.  Even when they cut themselves to prove their worthiness and desperation. But when Elijah prayed, it didn't  matter that the wood and the sacrifice were soggy as swampland. Zap! Pow! Whoosh! God sent the fire.

When you think about it, the kindling, the spark, and life itself -- all are gifts from God. When God grants to us or to others the privilege of using creativity, our proper response is not pride, but gratitude--not fear, but faith--not envy, but joyful celebration.

Nine Muses dancing with Apollo

EPILOGUE: The Muses liked to hang out at the sacred fountain of Hippocrene on Mt. Helicon. Hippocrene was said to be a fount of poetic inspiration. Maybe that's why we always get brilliant ideas in the bathtub!