On creativity: The Default

Why write a memoir when you can write magic? Aren’t we all looking for magic - at least sometimes - to leave this monotony of day-to-day, the default, just for a moment. Escape to someone else’s other world, other something, something different, a different story? The default is constant. It calls all the time. It takes up space. It’s busy and thoughtless. The default is plugging away, putting one foot in front of the other, doing the same thing every day. 

In the default there is no space and time for thought - just do. Do the right thing in the default - be reasonable, rational, responsible, safe. But the risk, the outlet, the beauty, the art, the creativity is calling constantly - these things are trapped, making me unsatisfied, sad and searching in the default. Is it reasonable to be irresponsible? To take a different path? To chase a whim?

The default is here to remind us: 

You are not lucky or privileged or talented enough to do something different. The stove broke, the grout is cracked, the windows need replacement. Come back to the default. Pay your bills. Clean and maintain. Make money. Talk about normal. 

Default is the right choice. Get back on the highway so that you can go fast, get to the doctor, get back to your McMansion, sit at your desk, buy things at the store, do the next thing. 

Look away from the risk, ignore the challenge, the art is too much. Hurry up. 

The default is the right way.