I'm an Idiot, and I'm an Artist

I'm not an intellectual.

I'm, in fact, an idiot.

But I'm an Artist.

And luckily, being an idiot is my greatest strength as an Artist.

Because I have no specific point that I need to get across

I can simply be a tuning fork.

I can turn upside down the bucket, instead of attempting to patch its leaks.

I can show up and overflow.

And I am lazy.

But I am so lazy that I default only to efficiency.

And the highest form of efficiency is doing things that do not feel like work.

Like writing this piece. Like taking any action which I have not spent hours intellectualizing.

Simply just taking action.

It takes a lot of work to intellectualize everything. And it wastes a lot of effort to think about a decision for days or weeks or months. If I don't spend all of that effort, I have a lot more available for the action.

It's much more efficient to simply make the decision.

The more I think, the worse the decisions end up being.

So it's much more efficient to skip the processing in my mind that "helps me think it through."

"Why not just take action today?"

I don't work hard.

I overflow with work.

I have too much work in me.

So I work to get it out.

And how can it be hard to take action and work hard when you're overflowing?

I have extra energy that needs to be shared.

And because I am lazy, and because I don't work hard...

I can be very generous.

It feels really complex and really difficult to scheme so many plans and build such a chess-board strategy that I am trying to control and enforce something on anyone else.

This makes it so that I'm not a burden on others.

Because my interest is not to take from them.

Because there is no trap door. Because there is no ulterior motive.

And so things are attracted, rather than grabbed. If I sell, I sell opportunity. I don't twist arms.

And my planning is more making predictions.

So then I can simply show up.

Coaches, teachers, parents... they use guilt as a tool for direction.

The burden of guilt of not doing your work.

The burden of guilt of not performing well.

The burden guilt of making an error in your practice.

Guilt is a weight that I'm not trying to give anyone else to carry.

So I can be inspirational, but only because of that fact.

I remove weights, instead of hand them out.

Inspiration is the weight lifting off your shoulders as you see how high you can now climb.

Without having to be intelligent.

Without having to make perfect decisions.

Without having guilt.

Without having the weight...

Of being afraid of looking like an Idiot.

‍xx David