My (Not as short as I wanted it to be but: Reasons) Commentary on Content Creation/ Consumption

In the creative space regarding thought and entertainment I feel there are only two rules:

1) Let Creators Create

Everything starts from an idea - some of them you're not going to like. Devour the ones you love, ignore the ones that don’t interest you but don’t stop the creators from creating.

Stop telling them Bob Ross-inspired landscape paintings don’t sell.

Stop insisting they be the next Ryan Reynolds or David Fincher or Christopher Nolan or Ed Sheeran or anybody who isn’t them.

Stop telling them what not to write about, what race of actors they shouldn’t cast for a role or what jokes aren’t fit to be told to a live audience.

Just stop.

There are certain films that I have seen or books I've read that made such an impact on me that I didn’t see film the same way afterward and most of them left me feeling that way because I hadn’t seen anything like it before. And that is precisely why creators need to be left alone to create.

Those creators were often inspired by something that they thought was so God-awful they believed they could objectively do a better job.

And art begets more art. All of which is for someone.

There's an unspoken agreement an audience has with a creator: The creator brings a vision to life and really, REALLY wants to know what we think about it. In exchange for our attention during this ride through the imagination of the creator we have the ability to stop the ride and leave whenever we want to. No questions asked. No harm done. They will graciously thank you for the attention you gave their creation and never press you to come back to finish it.

But should we return we can not expect the creation to have changed. The audience goes for a ride, the creator is the driver. You can exit the vehicle whenever you choose, but the trip and the destination - by careful, meticulous design - will always be the same.

People aren’t always sticking around for the words, sometimes it’s the voice. Voices are what will frame future ideas and some of them will be awful but creation inspires better creation so let creators create. 2) Like the shit you like I’m on the fence about shame. I feel like shame motivates a lot of people to do better, be better and achieve more but knowing what we now know about the human psyche and how unhelpful it is to just tell people to ignore assholes, I won’t be the guy to help there.

My only advice is to like the shit you like. Love it if you can. Don’t make excuses for it, try to explain it away or keep it in the closet and countdown to when you can be you again. It’s not healthy and ultimately teaches us to keep things most important to our souls hidden from the world.

Like. The. Shit. You. Like.

If we allow ourselves to we can enjoy 100% of this life and whether or not you believe in one that comes after this one we’re all in agreement that this is the only one you’ve got. If you only enjoy 82% of your life and part of that includes pop music, outhouses, powdered mac & cheese, homemade bread and the Kardashians, just own it.

I'm telling you - giving you permission, if that's what you need - to like what you like deliberately and out loud.

In 33 years my mission statement has become:

Let Creators Create and Like the shit you like - Love it if you can. T-Shirts incoming.