Finding Water, Week 3 Section 4

Sobriety 4

Little by little, we chip away at the problems and work our way toward a solution. This section seems to be speaking a lot about Ego at first so I’ll just share a bit. The ego doesn’t like punching in and doing work on a schedule. The ego likes more mystery and hokum. “Watch out” The idea that the biggest secret of making art light just be making some art is a conclusion the ego works very hard to avoid. The ego wants us to be “in the mood” to make art as the very least. And yet, as any working artist will honestly tell you, waiting for the mood is a huge time waster.

I’ve heard that Ego stands for Easing God Out, or Easing Good Out.

If we listen to our ego, we become dangerously marginalized. Our art becomes more difficult for us to make because we are too busy trying to make ourselves into artists. The ego like uncertainty because wherever there is uncertainty there is grounds for obsession, particularly, self-obsession, and the ego’s favorite plaything. The ego wants us to think about being an artist rather than simply be one. The ego doesn’t want art to boil down to the very basic question of process.

Question sounds like there might be a fine line between our ego’s and our critic? What do you think?

Personal notes: Sound like to me this section #4 has us toning ourselves down, JC says everyone is creative but she has us looking at the whole act as a way to treat it like one of the many chores or responsibilities we have to do daily. Here’s where the sober life comes in to meet Ego.  As of an emotional sober work life, Work needs to be done daily and doable. JC has us look at it a normalizing but here’s where all long we are guided to look at it as play and now it’s work and then be humble by it all.  Well I guess as I/we progress on our creative path some things bound to come of it. As of you work at so long you start to have a house full of stuff that the next thing would be to market it or sell it so the play is still there but the result of the play as create a job for you and ones to keep it humble and moving forward. Well, that’s just my understanding if anyone else gathers something else do share always good to hear other perspective.

JC shares and example-She went to work at the typewriter the same way her friend Jackie when to work at her dress shop. JC also shares about getting to the normalize stage where you can start to relate to other people like lawyers and teachers.  Personal thought though is all the people she really does hang out with are writers and musicians so she might be contradicting herself but I think we get the point.

What it boils down to is we have to show up to the work just like any other job.

Divining Rod task-Most of us accomplish too little because we are expecting to accomplish too much. Savannahs of time to work on our art, thought we crave them we don’t really need vast ones. What we need is the willingness to work at our art in the time that we have actually got.