I don’t like coarseness, generally. It’s not that I’m delicate, or prudish particularly, it’s just a question of preference.
If at all possible, I try not to put into the minds of my audience images that are unpleasant or gross. That puts me in direct contrast to most contemporary stand-ups, who exchange disgusting images for the audience’s strained laughter of rejection,
Not the business I care to be in.
Now, sometimes a crude joke or statement is entirely appropriate–in the presence of trusted friends and far from any streaming devices.
But I had a realization that I wanted to briefly mention, that is not as polite as my usual observations. Brace yourself.
Many people have remarked that I am a very creative person, and indeed I am fortunate to be able to be productive in many areas of the arts. (That’s not the gross part.)
In truth, the urge to create something aesthetic builds up in me, and creates a very real kind of pressure that must be released.
The closest parallel is the pressure one experiences when one has been on a long car ride, say from LA to San Diego, and has been incautiously drinking coffee the entire time.
By the time one gets to the destination, one can think of nothing but finding a suitable place to relieve that pressure. No other activity than breathing can eclipse that necessity.
(That’s my unpleasant image, which, though unsavory, I’m sure you can identify with.)
For me, the discomfort of NOT creating something becomes as difficult to ignore as that other call of nature. That’s when I have to “pull over to the side of the road” and do something about it.
Obviously, not everyone feels this way. Probably that’s a blessing.
I comfort myself in considering that, unlike the byproduct of the former activity, the latter has the potential of making people happy, inspiring others or bringing some kind of spiritual, or even economic, benefit to the artist and his audience.
I think it’s likely that a lot of people feel this same pressure. It’s possible to go quite a long time without doing anything to relieve it, and unlike the problem of the long car trip and the Venti coffee, one can put it in the back of their mind and choose to submerge it until some later date, which in many cases could be a period of months or years… or even lifetimes.
In my case I just have a very low threshold of “pressure to create.”
Do you know what I’m talking about? Do you feel that pressure, and if you do, how do you deal with it?
See you on the side of the road.
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