Reading, and pondering, Seth Godin’s Linchpin:
Art, at least art as I define it, is the intentional act of using your humanity to create a change in another person. How and where you do that art is a cultural choice in the moment. No one wrote novels a thousand years ago. No one made videos thirty years ago. No one Twittered poetry three years ago.
There’s no doubt that certain sorts of art are easier to create. A warm smile to a stranger on an airplane at the right moment is an artistic endeavor that’s fairly easy for most of us to muster. Directing an Academy Award-winning film, on the other hand, is reserved for a select few. I’ll accept the fact that great novelists are born and made. But I don’t believe that you need to be an outlier to be an artist.
I’m not so interested in pushing you to become a brilliant filmmaker. I’m very passionate about exploring why you are so afraid about creating art that is actually within your grasp.
Why didn’t you speak up at the meeting yesterday? When you had a chance to reach out and interact with a co-worker in a way that would have changed everything, what held you back? That proposal for a new project that’s been sitting on your hard drive for a year . . .
Why aren’t all waiters amazingly great at being waiters?
I think it’s fear, and I think we’re even afraid to talk about this sort of fear. Fear of art. Of being laughed at. Of standing out and of standing for something.
Now, though, the economy is forcing us to confront this fear. The economy is ruthlessly punishing the fearful, and increasing the benefits to the few who are brave enough to create art and generous enough to give it away.
Emphasis mine. How do I create art (as described by Godin: the intentional act of using your humanity to create a change in another person) in my day?
The ereader is messing with my reading habits. I seem to be picking things up that might normally not have attracted me enough, or that just languished in a literal pile for months. With the ereader I have things to hand, on call, to dip in and out of as the mood hits me. This can only be a good thing.
One Comment
How do we create art in our day as librarians?
I think the important thing to remember is that it’s not about the outcome (i.e. the “art”), but the action of creating.
If we merely want to be cogs, then we can easily work the reference desk, accurately respond to queries as they arrive, shelve the books, maintain the collections.
The art comes through actively creating the human connections. Being the one to approach library users, initiate discourse, share experiences, and open up channels of communication. Create pleasure in the library user’s experience through human interaction, and through challenging them in positive ways.
That, in itself, is an art. 😉