Well, here's how it is: I am a bad blogger. At least, that's how I feel sometimes- not guilty, really- just kind of disappointed that I've been unable to keep all the balls in the air.
I can't post every day, or even every other day. Right now, I'm lucky if I can post once a week. I feel bad when I don't have enough time to leave witty and insightful comments on all of my friends' posts, if I even get a chance to look at them. Admittedly, I feel at times like I'm seeing them the way one sees the gorgeously tantalizing flowers in the neighbor's garden from the window of a speeding car.
I feel inadequate, but all I can say in my own defense is that even the best juggler (which I certainly am not) can get caught up in trying to juggle more balls than he/she can handle without the addition of some extra appendages. (Yes, I realize I'm mixing my metaphors again; it's like a big ol' metaphor soup up in here.)
So, I've been wracking my brain about how I could resolve this problem. It came to me like a bolt of lightening out of the sky (no, that's a simile!)- there really is no way to solve this conundrum short of somehow bending time.
This may be possible in theory, but not even Einstein had the slightest inkling how to apply it to our every day lives. Where's my Wayback Machine when I need one?
But then I was reading a post on Rice Freeman-Zachery's wonderful blog, Notes from the Voodoo Cafe, that made me feel a bit better about the whole thing. She says this about working artists:
"You try to get in touch with them, and they don't respond, and you think, scornfully, "Diva!" But that's most often not it (sometimes that's it, but not very often). Usually it's because they have a certain day of the week in which they respond to email because the other days are a flurry of all the various things they have to do to try to stay afloat in an economy that bites and a culture that doesn't value working artists."
She goes on to say that most of us have to decide what we're going to give up in order to make art a priority, such as TV and the internet (except for blogging, of course). I have to agree; it's all about prioritizing. I rarely watch TV, except for the news and a couple of other shows. I don't have a social life, and my house probably isn't the cleanest, if you know what I mean. My husband graciously does most of the cooking. I try to answer emails, but sometimes it takes me a while. Sometimes I forget to respond to comments on my blog posts, but that's due to the age of my brain, and is not at all intentional.
I used to try to accept the fact that I didn't have the time to make art, but I failed in that effort, because I was miserable. I came to realize that I would have to make that time by deciding not to spend it on other things, like watching TV, or going out for drinks. If I have to cook, I'm probably not going to make something that takes three hours to prepare, and I made a deal with the dust bunnies that if they don't look at me, I won't look at them. If I have to work a full time job, then shouldn't part of the reward for that be that I get to spend my off-time doing something I love?
It's a balancing act, without a doubt- full time job, making art, marketing the art, etc.- but it's something I have to keep trying to work out as best I can. We may not be able to adjust time, but we can adjust our thinking. It really is, ultimately, all in how we look at it.
"Jugglers at the Cirque Fernando" by Renoir
I can't post every day, or even every other day. Right now, I'm lucky if I can post once a week. I feel bad when I don't have enough time to leave witty and insightful comments on all of my friends' posts, if I even get a chance to look at them. Admittedly, I feel at times like I'm seeing them the way one sees the gorgeously tantalizing flowers in the neighbor's garden from the window of a speeding car.
I feel inadequate, but all I can say in my own defense is that even the best juggler (which I certainly am not) can get caught up in trying to juggle more balls than he/she can handle without the addition of some extra appendages. (Yes, I realize I'm mixing my metaphors again; it's like a big ol' metaphor soup up in here.)
"The Egyptian Juggler" by Sir Lawrence Alma Tadema
So, I've been wracking my brain about how I could resolve this problem. It came to me like a bolt of lightening out of the sky (no, that's a simile!)- there really is no way to solve this conundrum short of somehow bending time.
This may be possible in theory, but not even Einstein had the slightest inkling how to apply it to our every day lives. Where's my Wayback Machine when I need one?
But then I was reading a post on Rice Freeman-Zachery's wonderful blog, Notes from the Voodoo Cafe, that made me feel a bit better about the whole thing. She says this about working artists:
"You try to get in touch with them, and they don't respond, and you think, scornfully, "Diva!" But that's most often not it (sometimes that's it, but not very often). Usually it's because they have a certain day of the week in which they respond to email because the other days are a flurry of all the various things they have to do to try to stay afloat in an economy that bites and a culture that doesn't value working artists."
She goes on to say that most of us have to decide what we're going to give up in order to make art a priority, such as TV and the internet (except for blogging, of course). I have to agree; it's all about prioritizing. I rarely watch TV, except for the news and a couple of other shows. I don't have a social life, and my house probably isn't the cleanest, if you know what I mean. My husband graciously does most of the cooking. I try to answer emails, but sometimes it takes me a while. Sometimes I forget to respond to comments on my blog posts, but that's due to the age of my brain, and is not at all intentional.
I used to try to accept the fact that I didn't have the time to make art, but I failed in that effort, because I was miserable. I came to realize that I would have to make that time by deciding not to spend it on other things, like watching TV, or going out for drinks. If I have to cook, I'm probably not going to make something that takes three hours to prepare, and I made a deal with the dust bunnies that if they don't look at me, I won't look at them. If I have to work a full time job, then shouldn't part of the reward for that be that I get to spend my off-time doing something I love?
The Traveler's Tale: Balance
It's a balancing act, without a doubt- full time job, making art, marketing the art, etc.- but it's something I have to keep trying to work out as best I can. We may not be able to adjust time, but we can adjust our thinking. It really is, ultimately, all in how we look at it.
