The Inexplicable Stupidity of What We Do

Man, it's been a long week of being ill. Here it is Friday and I'm chillin' here listening to Suzie Ibarra Drum Sketches and the Benadril is starting to kick in. All the while I'm dreading all the work I have to do tomorrow. I've got promos to mail, projectors to set-up, equipment to haul, and finally a show to play. The show tomorrow is our record release which is, for any band, the equivalent of planting the flag on Everest - we're pretty much done and it's out there to sink or swim on its own merits. That brings to mind a recent Bill Moyers interview with Doris Lessing. Moyers opened with the question, "Do You ever stop writing?" and I loved Lessing's response.

"No. I'm compulsive. And I deeply think that it has to be something very neurotic. And I'm not joking. It has to be. Because if I've finished a book, and this wonderful release, which I'm now feeling-- it's off, it's in a parcel, it's gone to a publisher. Bliss and happiness.

I don't have to do anything. Nothing. I can just sit around. But, suddenly it starts, you see. This terrible feeling that I am just wasting my life, I'm useless, I'm no good. Now, it's a fact that if I spend a day busy as a little kitten, racing around. I do this, I do that. But I haven't written, so it's a wasted day, and I'm no good. How do you account for that nonsense?"

I don't know why but I'm always amused by this notion of people just doing creative things out of some inexplicable compulsion where you create something not for fame or money but just because you are too stupid not to stop. Mercifully, even the stupid have to sleep. So until next week...

Credits:
Photo of Doris Lessing : Elke Wetzig
(granted under Creative Commons and the GNU Free Documentation license:.)
For full details of the author's license and reproduction terms follow this link: License Details

Links:
Suzie Ibarra
Doris Lessing
Full Interview Transcript from PBS and "Now with Bill Moyers"