Overcoming barricades in life builds intelligence and character...
Adversity brings out the most in creative minds and galvanizes a panorama of intellects, as well as stimulating artists of all types, to actualize the most imaginative endeavors. Deprivation and difficulty is much better for the innovative soul than comfort and abundance.
You're absolutely right. There's something in the make-up of the creative human mind that...I want to say almost longs for a problem to work on. Those times are when things really tend to happen...and when I say problem I really mean something we don't know the measure of. It could be the recession or it could be the Sierras. Ask John Muir if you think I'm kidding. :)
ReplyDeleteSo yes, though you said it much better: we do our greatest work when something is gnawing at us.
It's a great post, JR. It leaves me thinking about comfort and abundance to the extent that I wonder what they are, and why I'd ever aspire to them.
In many ways I was happier in my twenties, which spanned the Seventies, not because I was young but because although I had a somewhat steady job, the future of it was always uncertain and I didn't earn a great deal. It made me solve problems about comfort and obtaining what I needed and in hindsight those years prepared me how to encounter and deal with difficult situations.
ReplyDeleteSad we have several generations that have never really known a bad time, those skills aren't easily obtained overnight.