200. We took photos of sunsets...

(morning thinking)

I took my son and his friend on a springtime road trip around some Scotland. Half way up and back to home. We walked in forests and climbed on rocks. We visited friends on pebble beaches. Jumped off sand dunes. Stayed with my mum and dad. We made funny videos with funny made up songs. We took photos of sunsets.

The kids have smartphones now.

Gus’s friend asked, “why do adults write such long messages”. He said “you don't have to put so many full stops!”

The tweens write abrupt, emoji heavy, declarations. Staccato statements.

He's an artist, the kid, my kid’s friend. He draws and paints. I saw his concentration face as he composed his shots. I saw him giving the same thought to his photographs as he does to his drawings. I sent him one of my photos and explained, in a message, the choices I'd made and the feeling I wanted to evoke with my framing and edits: perspective, focus, colour.

Sun and waves in constant motion. Visible movement. Lichen creeping over decades. Rock frozen in time. Erosion. Erratic versus static.

I could probably lay off the “teaching moments” a little.

Before he read the words on his screen he rolled his eyes at me and asked why adults write such long messages. I told him, I think we (some of us) write long messages just because we can. We've learnt how to and practiced until we're good at it.

But that didn’t feel right.

“Good at it” doesn't mean value, better or worse. I didn't mean “I'm good at it, you're not”.

We practice until we're capable?

My words mean something to me when they convey my meaning to you.

But my words also mean something to me when they feel nice said out loud. Tactility. Mouthfeel. Or rolled about in my head - mind feel.

“Good at it” means the words on the page or screen, accurately reflect how we feel in a way that lets another person feel the same. Or feel something.

In the Rick Rubin book he says…

“Art made accidentally has no more or less weight than art created through sweat and struggle”

So perhaps it's not necessary to figure out where the commas go.

“So long as what emerges is pleasing to us, the work has fulfilled its purpose”.

We write because we like to.

We write because we want to share something about the way we see the world.

I told him it’s the same as when he draws or paints. “You want it to be the way you see the world. So you put the lines exactly where you want them to be and try to make the colours feel the way the real world makes you feel.”

I told him I think it's the same with full stops and commas. I said “it's the same with choosing the right words.”

Words and punctuation are to writing, what lines and shading and colour are to painting and drawing.

It's all art.

I’m increasingly of the opinion that the point of being alive is to create. To be creative. To be creative is to be. As fully as we can be.

The people who try hardest to show the world how they see things through creative acts are called artists.

Stacking stones is art, making up songs is art, taking photographs, painting, drawing, writing stories or poems, making purposeful journeys to spend time with friends, gathering friends to eat soup you've made - all art.

When your art shows people how you see and feel the world, the art begins to feel right.

I think.

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Maybe this is an elitist perspective. There are some people who don’t create. Or don’t feel that they are creative. I don’t expect there’s no “point” to them. I don’t mean to exclude anyone from my world view. It wouldn’t be a world view without them.

Maybe I feel that people who don’t see the art in their actions are missing out.

Maybe.

I feel said when something, some practice or place or act is described as “arty”. It feels other. As though the person is saying “arty, unlike me”.

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These are, as ever, incomplete thoughts. I’d value your help unpicking and unpacking this thinking.

Let me know what you think, maybe.

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200 “long form” posts on Substack. Probably deserves some pomp and ceremony. A post about growing a subscriber base or building positive life habits. Those are everywhere now. My positive habits won’t be the same as yours. I don’t know how many subscribers I have. You do you.

My cousin Jamie turns 38 today. We weren't always sure he would. He is shaping his life into a positive and wonderful story. Perhaps I should have written about him this morning. I'd like him to tell his own story. Nudge.

Happy birthday Jamie.

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Whether you’re a regular reader or a first timer, thank you. Thanks for reading. I’ll keep writing while it feels right, while I feel like writing.

I wrote about that Rick Rubin book in an earlier post. You can read it here if you like 197. ...dumping his barrel of apples.

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Thanks for reading.

Love you for it.

Bye.

Paul.