Today's epiphany
Discovered that being able to create things is directly tied to my mood:
A day in which I've made something? Generally satisfied with life.
A day in which I've been prevented from making something? Generally hate the world.
Putting my behavioral self-analysis hat on, I imagine this is probably a coping mechanism. When life gets sucky due to forces beyond my control, my gut response is to go make something, so I can get a sense of control back. And if others boost my ego/sense of community support by giving me good feedback on what I've made, even better.
The thing that's kind of awesome about this is that that's actually a pretty healthy coping mechanism. Some people react to a loss of control by getting destructive or controlling of others. Me? I write dorky stories, make pies and play games that let me build stuff. Some people want to play God to squish other pathetic mortals. I want to play God so I can rebuild the world and everything in it.
Of course, there are some caveats to this. Anyone who gets in the way of my creative process will generally piss me off. Having to create something to someone else's specs, or--even worse--by someone else's method will also piss me off. And micromanagers are very likely to have their heads on spikes before they've even got their first "oh, how about you try doing ..." out of their mouths. I'm also generally not fond of creative collaboration except with (very rare) people with whom I have perfect creative synergy (though, when this does happen? It's better than sex. Really.)
But, yeah. It's nice to know that I do have a fairly surefire method for keeping myself from going completely mad when life throws the inevitable shitquake my direction. The only tricky part is making sure I have the time, energy and freedom to make stuff when said quake hits.
Side note: I suspect this may end up being my parenting philosophy, too. Parenting goal: creating a functioning, self-sufficient adult out of a squalling, pooping little bundle of raw Id. Sounds delightful to me.
A day in which I've made something? Generally satisfied with life.
A day in which I've been prevented from making something? Generally hate the world.
Putting my behavioral self-analysis hat on, I imagine this is probably a coping mechanism. When life gets sucky due to forces beyond my control, my gut response is to go make something, so I can get a sense of control back. And if others boost my ego/sense of community support by giving me good feedback on what I've made, even better.
The thing that's kind of awesome about this is that that's actually a pretty healthy coping mechanism. Some people react to a loss of control by getting destructive or controlling of others. Me? I write dorky stories, make pies and play games that let me build stuff. Some people want to play God to squish other pathetic mortals. I want to play God so I can rebuild the world and everything in it.
Of course, there are some caveats to this. Anyone who gets in the way of my creative process will generally piss me off. Having to create something to someone else's specs, or--even worse--by someone else's method will also piss me off. And micromanagers are very likely to have their heads on spikes before they've even got their first "oh, how about you try doing ..." out of their mouths. I'm also generally not fond of creative collaboration except with (very rare) people with whom I have perfect creative synergy (though, when this does happen? It's better than sex. Really.)
But, yeah. It's nice to know that I do have a fairly surefire method for keeping myself from going completely mad when life throws the inevitable shitquake my direction. The only tricky part is making sure I have the time, energy and freedom to make stuff when said quake hits.
Side note: I suspect this may end up being my parenting philosophy, too. Parenting goal: creating a functioning, self-sufficient adult out of a squalling, pooping little bundle of raw Id. Sounds delightful to me.