Self Indulgence and the Octopus

Blogs.

Is it just me, or do they scream self-indulgent? 

Hey! Listen up, I have something to say.

Maybe it’s just me…

Anyway, here we go.

Don’t feel committed. 

You can leave at any point.

Over the years people have asked why I don’t do stand-up comedy. Lately people have asked when I’m going to write a book. I’ve written a few plays, where I can hide my words in the mouths of other characters, distancing them from me. And our marketing team wanted me to start this blog.

So here we are.

It’s not that I don’t have things to say. I most certainly do. My problem has been where to put them; these things-I-have-to-say.

And how much hubris do you have to have to think that what you have to say is in any way interesting to anyone else?

I’ve been nervous about how my words may impact organizations, or people, that I am connected to, represent. I don’t want them to have to apologize or justify my thoughts to other people.

So as much as it may appear that I talk – I often say nothing, or a very small percentage of what is actually rolling around inside my head.

What shall we talk about here?

I suppose art. And culture and community and critics. I think a fair bit about each of those things. They are connected. And over all of this, I think about the Creator. Yup, I think there is one. And that we are created in their imagine.

I believe in God because of the colour purple and because of the octopus. 

Do you know how rare the colour purple is in nature? It comes from the gland of a tiny sea snail called the spiny dye-murex. God made this little snail so that we could have the colour purple! He could’ve simply made the world in shades of black and white. Why colour? Why turquoise and burnt orange and lime green? They’re ridiculous. And the octopus? Come on. A sea creature that has a beak and can live outside of water for half an hour. And they change colour. There is no good reason that we need octopuses. And don’t let me get started on the aardvark. God just made them…’cause He can. Because He is an extravagant artist. Because He knew it would bring us joy.

I want to be an extravagant artist. Because I can. Because it brings joy.

...Val