Like I said in my last blog, I’ve never birthed or raised babies.
Nevertheless, here I am ready to dole out all my sage advice to my fellow writers and drawers of children’s books. After all, we’re do what we do to inspire and encourage, educate and entertain both kids and parents. Because all this writing and drawing we do is going to CHANGE THE WORLD!!
Well that’s a little sobering. And perhaps a little brash for somebody who’s never birthed or raised babies.
But for all of us writers and drawers, whether or not we’ve ever been parents, we have certainly entered this world as big-brained babies, and have walked through our own journey of getting raised for twenty years, and have struggled through the process of discovering Who am I?, Why am I here? and Where do I fit into this world?
Some people find the answers to those questions early in the journey and march through life boldly and confidently. Others never seem to never find answers right up to the day they die.
Most of us find the answers in bits and pieces as we go along and then are prone to constantly question, second guess and overthink. Or, worse, we decide that we’ve discovered the elusive secret and we set out on a mission to educate everybody else how to do it.
But that doesn’t work, because the population of big-brained humans living on the planet is a paradox of individuals who are simultaneously identical and uniquely different all at the same time.
We’re all governed by the same universal spiritual and physical laws. Laws that tell us how to feed and care for ourselves, and tell us how we should interact with others. Laws that draw clear boundaries to protect us from danger and show us our limitations. We all suffer or benefit in the same ways whether we deviate or obey those laws.
We’re also each uniquely individual and different from one another. We each are born with our own custom-made-just-for-me package of creativity, abilities, talents, personality and an irresistible inclination to go out and do something with all that. Figuring out that path and pursuing it gives us purpose and meaning.
This is where “creatives” find their purpose. Everyone has a spark of creativity. No matter whether we’re running a home, a business, or a whole country … creativity helps us do that. Maybe we’re trying to figure out the best arrangement for thousands of products in a retail store; or how to fit all of our chores into a doable weekly schedule; or how to get perishable goods or important equipment shipped to far away locations in a timely manner … our creative brains enable us to figure out how to get it all done. All of us are creative.
But some individuals get labeled as “creatives”. Those are the ones who are gifted with a unique ability to express the intangible in a tangible form that we call art.
Who hasn’t felt stirred at a beautiful painting, or teared up from moving lyrics, or inspired and motivated by words on a page?
Art communicates on a level that we all grasp, but none of us can really explain. We experience art through our physical senses, but it’s the stirrings in our souls, minds and emotions that move us and remind us that we’re part of something bigger.
It’s an intimate encounter between the artist and his audience that can be life changing, even though they’ll never meet.
If you’re out there composing symphonies, writing epic novels, painting breathtaking master pieces – and yes, even writing and drawing children’s books – keep it up! Our world needs you!