Creative Community.

I suppose I have always thought of myself as a bit of a loner, although, really, if I think about it, I have never really lived alone. I have always been surrounded by people, a long-time partner, a close family. Still, I spend lots of time in my own head. I live in my imagination. I happily spend lots of time by myself, listening to music, reading books, playing guitar, writing songs.

I am not a joiner. I'm not big on cliques and clubs. I don't like to live in the herd. Not big on parties. Not big on dinner with friends. I usually like to be actively doing something, not just hanging out. I despise small-talk, although, I can small-talk with the best of them.

I strongly identify with creative people. If there is any club or tribe I think I belong to, it would be the  tribe of "creative ones." My tribe of creatives is expansive, it includes every creed and color, it crosses continents, spans time, history and culture. Everyone is welcome. I'm thinking of musicians, artists, writers, playwrights, actors, directors, poets, performers of all types. I am not really talking celebrities, I am talking people who do the work, the good work. Some of them are known, some of them are celebrated in our culture, but many of them are not known at all in the broader culture. I include, and I am thinking of, local, neighborhood folks. Just folks who happen to be alive to creativity. Fellow travelers that we have met along the way.

I suppose I feel like I am tangentially connected to a local community of artists. That's probably the closest and most important connection I can envision for myself. I know most of these people thru their work, not so much their personal stories, usually filtered thru their songs, their performance pieces, thru the artwork, the things they create.

I do think the creative ones, by definition, by default, are channeling a positive energy. It is hard to create art if you don't have some kind of positive vision that drives you, some idea that what you create will have the ability, the air to breathe, and to touch other folks, that the work will have life beyond the present moment, beyond the creative one. It's a hopeful thing, whether the work is about hope or not. It's the creating, doing, being, in the moment, putting the work out into the world, that is an affirmative act. Human. Hopeful. Despite everything. And at the same time doing the work transforms the moments, the little, day-to-day moments, of our lives, enriches us all; just the simple, dedicated act of trying, playing, doing. Transformative.

I feel I am a part of, and intimately connected to, that kind of creative community.