I understand a bit how you feel. I had lofty visions. I ended up flunking out of college twice, and after 13 years to finally get a bachelors in general studies. I’m now qualified to be a secretary, even though I was an account manager in logistics before I left to care for my kids (childcare basically cancelled out my salary). I’m grateful because being at home led me to making. And I think you’re right. We can impact our little circle of influence. And that’s enough. If everyone does that, it helps the world move the needle towards a better future.
It’s funny how grand our own naivety can be and how things turn out sometimes. So glad you found you’re way to making, it’s making things better for all of us!
I’ve often said that my degrees should have made me an honorary monk, in garnering them I seem to have taken unspoken vows of poverty and chastity, haha!
One of the things I love about our Substack community is that I read the comments and actually feel like I'm among my people!!
Psychology major here, and also a "career" flounderer. I'm only comfortable as a maker. We do make a difference... I choose to believe that even when our society isn't really set up to support us. So we support each other, see each other...there's something so powerful in our creative web of community. Let's keep it up.
Welcome home Bestie! We’ve been expecting you, haha!
Every week that i can offer something to this community that give so much to me, I’m just beyond grateful. Every part of me believes that it changes something, in some small but vitally important way. thanks Jill!
My college career was as motley as my career careers have been, so heard on that. On changing the world, maybe it's hubris or denial or terror, but I have to believe that some gust of wind by my direction might effect some favorable weather somewhere, someday. I'll keep at it, faith over proof.
Another good one, Duane! My two cents; Makers may not solve the world’s problems, but our creations have the power to suspend, at least momentarily, the anxieties and stressors that bombard us daily. Makers are the antidote that tilts us back toward equilibrium and the fuel for the resilience that keeps us going.
Lovely and vulnerable essay, Duane. I so enjoy these peeks into your background. Calls to mind another favorite Mary Oliver quote of mine:
“In creative work—creative work of all kinds—those who are the world’s working artists are not trying to help the world go around, but forward. Which is something altogether different from the ordinary. Such work does not refute the ordinary. It is, simply, something else. Its labor requires a different outlook—a different set of priorities. Certainly there is within each of us a self that is neither a child, nor a servant of the hours. It is a third self, occasional in some of us, tyrant in others. This self is out of love with the ordinary; it is out of love with time. It has a hunger for eternity. Intellectual work sometimes, spiritual work certainly, artistic work always—these are forces that fall within its grasp, forces that must travel beyond the realm of the hour and the restraint of the habit. Nor can the actual work be well separated from the entire life. Like the knights of the Middle Ages, there is little the creatively inclined person can do but to prepare himself, body and spirit, for the labor to come—for his adventures are all unknown. In truth, the work itself is the adventure. And no artist could go about this work, or would want to, with less than extraordinary energy and concentration. The extraordinary is what art is about.”
Kate! Wow! THIS PASSAGE! “Servant of the hours” - I can’t tell you just how much that particular phrase hit in such a resonant way. I can’t help but think of the Divine Office, a specific system and set of time appointed prayers observed ritualistically as a means of sanctifying the day. A means of making the hours of the day more holy, more sacred, more hallowed. A reverent engagement with both time and space. It’s as if Oliver is saying that the effort and attention of the artist forms a kind of liturgy. Thanks again for sharing this!
You can affect individuals deeply. Sometimes it seems silly to be out here collaging when the world is such a dumpster fire. However, the act of creating and then connecting is radical.
I know exactly what you mean! Sometimes making things seems inconsequential and ineffectual in the face of an entire world on the brink of collapsing. It feels almost self-indulgent. But every act when looked at carefully reveals teh radicality of our connectivity to everything. A zen master by the name of Dogen said that "The sutras are the entire world” and that "Mountains practice with one who meditates. Water realizes the way with one who practices." When one of us wakes up, everything wakes up. When one of us comes alive everything comes alive...
I love that. It’s comforting to think you are everything and nothing at the same time. By doing something small you are doing something big.
I’ve been thinking about your article, and the idea of saving the world with your art. I came across your article and this Ted Talk within the same 24 hours. The idea was following me. Like some do.
Yes! It’s every all at once, all the time. Infinity and the. infinitesimal. The profane and the sacred. meaninglessness and the most meaningful of all things simultaneously.
Thanks so much for sharing this video! Amie is awesome!
I'm going to jump in and offer my two cents. First, being a person who spends his days as the least academic academic, the academy isn't all it's cracked up to be. So if a guy who got kicked out of school as an undergrad and has a pointless MA in Leadership can teach, you can teach.
Secondly, if I were to return to graduate school, I'd want to study philosophy or architecture. Not to gain a different career, but to broaden my understanding of something that brings me some joy. So your "useless degrees" are only useless if they brought you nothing. Reading your posts and watching your videos, it is clear to see that they have brought you plenty.
Lastly, I truly believe a person can make the world better by making themselves better. Your work, both visual and written, makes the world a better place by inspiring us to think and find comfort.
If you are seriously interested in teaching, consider an adjunct position. We offer some online Art courses (not my program), and my entire Graphic Design program is online.
I love everything about this entire reply Bob! Thank you so much for taking the time to write it!
When I first started my undergrad I was a Business Major. It seemed safe and practical, and I sure tried like hell to like it and lean into, but I just couldn't. I wasn't interested. It didn't connect with me or excitement. I dropped out after a couple of semesters.
When I decided to go back and finish my undergrad I chose instead to study something that fascinated me, something that would "broaden my understanding", which brought me to religion, and philosophy, and the humanities. And though the pursuit didn't come with the career change I hoped it would, the endeavor did increase what Thomas Pynchon might refer to as my "personal density". Pynchon said that "The more you dwell in the past and in the future as they exist in the here and in the now, the thicker the density of your here-ness, the more solidity will be added to who you are.” I'm grateful for what it brought me, but...it'd be nice if it could have given it to me without the mountain of student I'll be living with forever, haha.
Anne Lamott says that "we think we are drops in the ocean, but that we are really the ocean in drops, both minute and everything there is." The entire cosmos intricately and meticulously condensed to a person sized scale. We are the whole world made miniature. To open ourselves is to open up the universe in total, to expand who we are is to expand all that is.
It's funny you mention adjunct teaching, I haven't thought of it in a long time, but I think it might be something seriously considering again.
Such foul language Bob! When I was working on my undergrad, I needed to take one math class, and I made sure it was the very last class I took. I built up my GPA before hand because I knew it was going to be bad, haha!
I want to hear more about what it means to be the least academic academic 😄 I hope to teach someday myself after picking up a few more degrees. I intend to study communication theory. I love learning about underlying philosophies of mass media and symbols & images
Ah, good question. To keep it short, I don’t play roles very well. I don’t speak in academic jargon unless I have to (when speaking to other academics I really avoid it, pisses them off), I don’t look like a typical academic (my business casual is jeans and whatever). I’m not all that book smart, nor do I hold a terminal degree. If we met, professor would be way down the list of your guesses as to my profession.
Teaching is a fantastic gig. Most universities only require a Master’s degree to teach full-time or as an adjunct (depending on the field of study). I hope you find yourself in front of students one day.
Every single time I open your posts or see your collages Duane, I experience one of the following: awe, joy, excitement, interest, appreciation, wonder, amazement, enlightenment. That's a lot of very positive energy. Art heals me, the one I make, the one you make and those of the other artists I love. Now when you put all that together yes, I believe it does move the world in a good way. We're in the right place. You're awesome and your work spreads good vibes, Duane! 💙💖💫
This such a beautiful comment to read! thank you for it! “Art heals me, the one I make, the one you make and those of the other artists I love.” - Same here! This is perfectly put. I have been saved and continue to be saved by teh work of so many marvelous makers like yourself, and everything I make is an attempt to pay it forward and to return the favor. thanks again Emily!
Sounds like the story of my life (there's nothing like putting thousands of dollars into a PhD only to realize you're not suited for academic life). So now I'm a maker, too.
Ouch, I hear you! A PhD was originally my plan, but after my Master’s I thought better of it. Part of my still thinks that maybe I should have gone through with. For what its worth I think you’re a total bad-ass for doing it Jean! Glad to be in good company!
English w/focus on Filipino American literature. UC Berkeley. Still had to read Shakespeare & his cronies, though, plus American writers like Hawthorn, Emerson and Melville, et. al.
Wow! That sounds so interesting!! I’m sure the juxtapositions were fascinating! There’s something exciting about divergent sources put into conversation with one another.
I don't have any degrees hanging on my wall—just a lot of life behind me, and a habit of making things whenever I can. I'll be honest, for a long time I thought I didn't have much to offer because I lacked the letters after my name or a tidy story about where I fit in the world. But being a maker changed that for me. It might sound small, but I've found that every time I create something—anything, really—I feel a little more present, a little more myself, and somehow a bit more hopeful about my place in things.
Maybe collages won't fix the world, but I've seen how making even the tiniest thing can change someone’s mood or shift a day. Sometimes it’s my own, sometimes someone else's. That has to count for something. And if enough of us are out here quietly tending our little corners, who’s to say it doesn’t add up to something bigger? Thanks for putting this out there. It matters.
Thank you! As always you've offered something so poignant and heartfelt and wonderful! I'm grateful for my education. I'm lucky and privileged to have had it but, "the life behind me" and the effort and energy I've spent making things has taught me more than anything I've ever learned in a classroom.
Every little bit counts. Never underestimate the big importance of small things. Everything seemingly large is made of tiny things working together in a grand and intricate coalition.
Good post Duane! I have one coming out Monday you should like keep an eye out for that one. We are all here to care for our little corner of the universe the best we are able and trust each other to do the same. Not that any of us are very good at it. Luckily the universe is self generating, self repairing and self sufficient.
That article is named Forty Acres and a Mule (and the Open Field of Imagination)
The one coming out in a few minutes is a part of that series. I think it is also good.
The writing I have been doing about creative life style are hopefully a balm for other creatives. I have certainly suffered along through 50 years of this way of life trying to figure it out. But really, what else is worth the effort? I still am happy to waking up in the morning. It's a new day!
I understand a bit how you feel. I had lofty visions. I ended up flunking out of college twice, and after 13 years to finally get a bachelors in general studies. I’m now qualified to be a secretary, even though I was an account manager in logistics before I left to care for my kids (childcare basically cancelled out my salary). I’m grateful because being at home led me to making. And I think you’re right. We can impact our little circle of influence. And that’s enough. If everyone does that, it helps the world move the needle towards a better future.
It’s funny how grand our own naivety can be and how things turn out sometimes. So glad you found you’re way to making, it’s making things better for all of us!
Exactly. The path is exactly where our feet land next. It appears as we walk it. Learning to let go of expectation.
Well said!
The ripple effect. Make a collage, throw it into the pond, and you never know what the expanding circles will encounter.
My undergrad degree is American studies. We referred to it as a decision not to decide. I live in a state of indecision.
perfectly put, George!
I’ve often said that my degrees should have made me an honorary monk, in garnering them I seem to have taken unspoken vows of poverty and chastity, haha!
My feeling was that the three+ years I lived in NYC should have earned me a masters degree.
And see as a small town midstwerner I’m envious of those who live city life. Definitely a masters earned!
I’ll sign off on it!
Yes. It all ripples out. We have no idea the impact of our work. Could likely never know the full scope of it
It might even be better if we don’t know.
You know, someday, I think you should publish all these essays in a book together with your collages!
Aww, thank you! That means a lot to me!
One of the things I love about our Substack community is that I read the comments and actually feel like I'm among my people!!
Psychology major here, and also a "career" flounderer. I'm only comfortable as a maker. We do make a difference... I choose to believe that even when our society isn't really set up to support us. So we support each other, see each other...there's something so powerful in our creative web of community. Let's keep it up.
Welcome home Bestie! We’ve been expecting you, haha!
Every week that i can offer something to this community that give so much to me, I’m just beyond grateful. Every part of me believes that it changes something, in some small but vitally important way. thanks Jill!
Thanks, Bestie. So glad to be here!
I’m glad you are too!
Major connective tissue here with Jenna Park's latest essay!
https://open.substack.com/pub/jennapark/p/why-we-should-never-stop-learning?r=18i7qw&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
My college career was as motley as my career careers have been, so heard on that. On changing the world, maybe it's hubris or denial or terror, but I have to believe that some gust of wind by my direction might effect some favorable weather somewhere, someday. I'll keep at it, faith over proof.
Wow! Thanks for sharing this! It’s so spot on and I’m so glad I got the chance to read it Bree, thank you! “Faith over proof” - love that!
I'm so glad too, Duane! Love Jenna's work (and obv yours) and am drawn to cross-pollinate when/where I can. Thank you back, as always!!
Yes! It’s in teh cross-pollination that the real magic happens!
Another good one, Duane! My two cents; Makers may not solve the world’s problems, but our creations have the power to suspend, at least momentarily, the anxieties and stressors that bombard us daily. Makers are the antidote that tilts us back toward equilibrium and the fuel for the resilience that keeps us going.
"Makers are the antidote that tilts us back toward equilibrium" - That is so DAMN GOOD! Thank you for this!!
You’re welcome, Duane!
Lovely and vulnerable essay, Duane. I so enjoy these peeks into your background. Calls to mind another favorite Mary Oliver quote of mine:
“In creative work—creative work of all kinds—those who are the world’s working artists are not trying to help the world go around, but forward. Which is something altogether different from the ordinary. Such work does not refute the ordinary. It is, simply, something else. Its labor requires a different outlook—a different set of priorities. Certainly there is within each of us a self that is neither a child, nor a servant of the hours. It is a third self, occasional in some of us, tyrant in others. This self is out of love with the ordinary; it is out of love with time. It has a hunger for eternity. Intellectual work sometimes, spiritual work certainly, artistic work always—these are forces that fall within its grasp, forces that must travel beyond the realm of the hour and the restraint of the habit. Nor can the actual work be well separated from the entire life. Like the knights of the Middle Ages, there is little the creatively inclined person can do but to prepare himself, body and spirit, for the labor to come—for his adventures are all unknown. In truth, the work itself is the adventure. And no artist could go about this work, or would want to, with less than extraordinary energy and concentration. The extraordinary is what art is about.”
Kate! Wow! THIS PASSAGE! “Servant of the hours” - I can’t tell you just how much that particular phrase hit in such a resonant way. I can’t help but think of the Divine Office, a specific system and set of time appointed prayers observed ritualistically as a means of sanctifying the day. A means of making the hours of the day more holy, more sacred, more hallowed. A reverent engagement with both time and space. It’s as if Oliver is saying that the effort and attention of the artist forms a kind of liturgy. Thanks again for sharing this!
AMEN! Beautifully put.
Haha! Thanks Kate! I appreciate you!
You can affect individuals deeply. Sometimes it seems silly to be out here collaging when the world is such a dumpster fire. However, the act of creating and then connecting is radical.
I know exactly what you mean! Sometimes making things seems inconsequential and ineffectual in the face of an entire world on the brink of collapsing. It feels almost self-indulgent. But every act when looked at carefully reveals teh radicality of our connectivity to everything. A zen master by the name of Dogen said that "The sutras are the entire world” and that "Mountains practice with one who meditates. Water realizes the way with one who practices." When one of us wakes up, everything wakes up. When one of us comes alive everything comes alive...
I love that. It’s comforting to think you are everything and nothing at the same time. By doing something small you are doing something big.
I’ve been thinking about your article, and the idea of saving the world with your art. I came across your article and this Ted Talk within the same 24 hours. The idea was following me. Like some do.
https://youtu.be/CDs2d3dJtYk?si=MXRFnFn6nBJ3COcC
I do believe the world needs your art, but you need your art.
Yes! It’s every all at once, all the time. Infinity and the. infinitesimal. The profane and the sacred. meaninglessness and the most meaningful of all things simultaneously.
Thanks so much for sharing this video! Amie is awesome!
I'm going to jump in and offer my two cents. First, being a person who spends his days as the least academic academic, the academy isn't all it's cracked up to be. So if a guy who got kicked out of school as an undergrad and has a pointless MA in Leadership can teach, you can teach.
Secondly, if I were to return to graduate school, I'd want to study philosophy or architecture. Not to gain a different career, but to broaden my understanding of something that brings me some joy. So your "useless degrees" are only useless if they brought you nothing. Reading your posts and watching your videos, it is clear to see that they have brought you plenty.
Lastly, I truly believe a person can make the world better by making themselves better. Your work, both visual and written, makes the world a better place by inspiring us to think and find comfort.
If you are seriously interested in teaching, consider an adjunct position. We offer some online Art courses (not my program), and my entire Graphic Design program is online.
I love everything about this entire reply Bob! Thank you so much for taking the time to write it!
When I first started my undergrad I was a Business Major. It seemed safe and practical, and I sure tried like hell to like it and lean into, but I just couldn't. I wasn't interested. It didn't connect with me or excitement. I dropped out after a couple of semesters.
When I decided to go back and finish my undergrad I chose instead to study something that fascinated me, something that would "broaden my understanding", which brought me to religion, and philosophy, and the humanities. And though the pursuit didn't come with the career change I hoped it would, the endeavor did increase what Thomas Pynchon might refer to as my "personal density". Pynchon said that "The more you dwell in the past and in the future as they exist in the here and in the now, the thicker the density of your here-ness, the more solidity will be added to who you are.” I'm grateful for what it brought me, but...it'd be nice if it could have given it to me without the mountain of student I'll be living with forever, haha.
Anne Lamott says that "we think we are drops in the ocean, but that we are really the ocean in drops, both minute and everything there is." The entire cosmos intricately and meticulously condensed to a person sized scale. We are the whole world made miniature. To open ourselves is to open up the universe in total, to expand who we are is to expand all that is.
It's funny you mention adjunct teaching, I haven't thought of it in a long time, but I think it might be something seriously considering again.
Thanks again Bob!
My first major was architecture. That is until my advisor uttered the word calculus. I was failing remedial algebra.
Such foul language Bob! When I was working on my undergrad, I needed to take one math class, and I made sure it was the very last class I took. I built up my GPA before hand because I knew it was going to be bad, haha!
I want to hear more about what it means to be the least academic academic 😄 I hope to teach someday myself after picking up a few more degrees. I intend to study communication theory. I love learning about underlying philosophies of mass media and symbols & images
Ah, good question. To keep it short, I don’t play roles very well. I don’t speak in academic jargon unless I have to (when speaking to other academics I really avoid it, pisses them off), I don’t look like a typical academic (my business casual is jeans and whatever). I’m not all that book smart, nor do I hold a terminal degree. If we met, professor would be way down the list of your guesses as to my profession.
Teaching is a fantastic gig. Most universities only require a Master’s degree to teach full-time or as an adjunct (depending on the field of study). I hope you find yourself in front of students one day.
This was such a joy to read! I was already sure that I liked you, now I’ve never been more certain that I do!
your read my mind!!
Every single time I open your posts or see your collages Duane, I experience one of the following: awe, joy, excitement, interest, appreciation, wonder, amazement, enlightenment. That's a lot of very positive energy. Art heals me, the one I make, the one you make and those of the other artists I love. Now when you put all that together yes, I believe it does move the world in a good way. We're in the right place. You're awesome and your work spreads good vibes, Duane! 💙💖💫
This such a beautiful comment to read! thank you for it! “Art heals me, the one I make, the one you make and those of the other artists I love.” - Same here! This is perfectly put. I have been saved and continue to be saved by teh work of so many marvelous makers like yourself, and everything I make is an attempt to pay it forward and to return the favor. thanks again Emily!
Sounds like the story of my life (there's nothing like putting thousands of dollars into a PhD only to realize you're not suited for academic life). So now I'm a maker, too.
Ouch, I hear you! A PhD was originally my plan, but after my Master’s I thought better of it. Part of my still thinks that maybe I should have gone through with. For what its worth I think you’re a total bad-ass for doing it Jean! Glad to be in good company!
English w/focus on Filipino American literature. UC Berkeley. Still had to read Shakespeare & his cronies, though, plus American writers like Hawthorn, Emerson and Melville, et. al.
Wow! That sounds so interesting!! I’m sure the juxtapositions were fascinating! There’s something exciting about divergent sources put into conversation with one another.
Hey, thanks. I did get the degree. But I think it's also good to be aware enough to know when to put on the brakes, like you did. Congrats on that!
It was probably a decision based on fear and laziness that happened to turn out ok, haha! What’s your PhD in if you don’t mind me asking?
I don't have any degrees hanging on my wall—just a lot of life behind me, and a habit of making things whenever I can. I'll be honest, for a long time I thought I didn't have much to offer because I lacked the letters after my name or a tidy story about where I fit in the world. But being a maker changed that for me. It might sound small, but I've found that every time I create something—anything, really—I feel a little more present, a little more myself, and somehow a bit more hopeful about my place in things.
Maybe collages won't fix the world, but I've seen how making even the tiniest thing can change someone’s mood or shift a day. Sometimes it’s my own, sometimes someone else's. That has to count for something. And if enough of us are out here quietly tending our little corners, who’s to say it doesn’t add up to something bigger? Thanks for putting this out there. It matters.
Thank you! As always you've offered something so poignant and heartfelt and wonderful! I'm grateful for my education. I'm lucky and privileged to have had it but, "the life behind me" and the effort and energy I've spent making things has taught me more than anything I've ever learned in a classroom.
Every little bit counts. Never underestimate the big importance of small things. Everything seemingly large is made of tiny things working together in a grand and intricate coalition.
You are, indeed, a maker, Duane. No degree required, just vision, no matter where it leads, and a willingness to do the work.
So gorgeously put Paul! thank you so much for this!
I think they're both very important degrees, Duane. But then I was a philosophy major, so.
You definitely get it! thanks so much for reading! So great hearing for you!
Good post Duane! I have one coming out Monday you should like keep an eye out for that one. We are all here to care for our little corner of the universe the best we are able and trust each other to do the same. Not that any of us are very good at it. Luckily the universe is self generating, self repairing and self sufficient.
Thanks Cecil! I appreciate it. I’ll keep an eye out for your post.
That article is named Forty Acres and a Mule (and the Open Field of Imagination)
The one coming out in a few minutes is a part of that series. I think it is also good.
The writing I have been doing about creative life style are hopefully a balm for other creatives. I have certainly suffered along through 50 years of this way of life trying to figure it out. But really, what else is worth the effort? I still am happy to waking up in the morning. It's a new day!
touchonian.com
Sounds good! Thanks again!