Creativity and Capitalism

No Impact Man (who is getting pretty famous; the BBC recently interviewed him) just wrote about his struggle to understand the balance between the human urge to create and society's collective need to reduce its consumption. I'm grateful that he verbalized this struggle because I wonder about it as well, but don't always talk about it.

I have a closet full of boxes of art supplies--balls of yarn left-over from knitting projects, fabric waiting to be turned into things, paints waiting to be applied to paper or canvas. None of these activities is necessary, yet I feel compelled to create, and I am happier when wearing my handmade leg-warmers than when wearing store-bought socks. It's cheaper to leave these tasks up to someone else, but it's also much less satisfying to pour water from a mass-manufactured pitcher than from my own clumsy hand-made ones.

I think we can take some lessons from other cultures. Native American art has its origins in the embellishment of everyday objects, something that's far removed from the typical Western preservationist attitude towards art. Something just feels right about handmade objects, and it's good to be surrounded by them and to share them with each other. And I think this perspective can be in line with a lower-impact philosophy, if considered appropriately.

I'm reminded of a story about my grandmother, who was an incredibly creative artist--a quilt-maker. She raised eleven children on limited means in a small town in Montana. How did she get the resources to pursue her hobby? A lot of her materials came from a thrift store in the town called the Nearly New. Occasionally, other peoples' abandoned projects would appear in the store, and so she would buy them (perhaps in excess at times--going through her things after she died was quite interesting, although I don't think her hoarding was overly severe). Once, one of my aunts bought fabric and cut it to make a quilt, but then changed her mind. It wasn't long before that fabric reappeared in the family, at my grandmother's house. The things that my grandmother has made, large and small, are our family's treasures now (that's not to mention the other beautiful items made by other family members as well!).

See also,

NIM has also pointed out a link to another article about questioning our economic philosophy:

http://www.bravenewtraveler.com/2007/06/20/the-crisis-of-too-much-energy/

Day 39: Naturopathy

Today at a rowing event, a naturopathic doctor and rower whose perspective I respect recommended taking additional vitamin C to help my immune system fight off the virus. This will sound familiar to my mother. After she made a similar recommendation, I basically said it wasn't clear to me if vitamin C would make much of a difference and so I made no effort to acquire supplemental vitamin C. But guess what? Today I marched off and bought some giant horse-pills and am going to give it a shot. It's a good thing I never make any claims to rationality.

On Monday, I plan to try rowing. It seems feasible if I get enough sleep the night before. Lack of sleep and super-busy days seem to be what still manage to drag me down towards the mono-cave.