A consumer mindset escalated throughout the ’90′s and into the 2000′s; and the big box stores and there ‘con’ became a part of life. If we wanted to “make” something, we were told through the subtleties of the marketing world, that we were to go to the store to “get” what we needed to “make” what we wanted.
I want to talk about really “making” something. Certainly raw materials are needed to create, to do, to work with ones hands. But somewhere, a manipulation came to tell us that if we wanted to make anything, there had to be a ‘purchase’ made. Go to the ‘store’, spend a little of that ‘green’stuff. Want cinnamon rolls? buy the prepackaged fat little dough boy thing that you crack on the countertop and within a short time you have – homemade (?) cinnamon rolls. I have had a long time craze as a want-to-be excellent baker of cinnamon rolls and I hope my desire to make those little babies just deliciously perfect lasts my lifetime. It takes a l-o-n-g time, The dough has to rise, and get kneaded, and rise again, and then get rolled and formed_It is a process that requires attention and organization. And it fills my soul with that little something lost…that little magic that just doesn’t come with the fat white guy.
When I had to replace my sewer I was left with a big time problem – I now had a mud path to my house instead of the former concrete sidewalk. Left with a cash wipeout due to the sewer, I was GIFTED the opportunity to create my own new front path. There are chunks of stuff out there, from Stinson Beach, from a backpacking trip where I added 20 pounds to my weight just because this one rock was so far out…the sides of my path are lines with drum symbols, horse shoes, cow horns nd other assorted finds from the pathway of life. My GIFT was that I had the opportunity to create. Had I had another pocket full of money, I may not have scrounged for the year and a half it took me to accumulate the cast off pieces of concrete, and brick and other miscellany that made up my path. Oh, and my soul is filled each time I walk my front path to my humble home.
Creating is about as close to Passion as I can figure. When I move to DO, with my hands, I have a sense of satisfaction that reaches far beyond the rush of the purchase, or the rush of the quick fix – instant dish or instant satisfaction. My own DOing, my own CREATing, just feeds me with pure pleasure. The Tickling Kind, the kind that makes every cell in my body give out a big SMiLE.
Dare I go further? Creating and spirituality are close friends; they’ve got to be. I really don’t think you get the one without the other. Store bought spirituality is just that. I want the homespun version complete with mistakes, ‘bad’ words and a god that looks kindly on um. My altars are funky, my prayers take on laughing spells, and my scene is moving along without the pull of a magazine to tell me how to do it. I don’t want to wear store bought prayer beads; they’re just not my thing and while they may support other countries that are pretty much different than where I live, you gotta wonder if those people would be better off without US interference. Off topic.
2010 – time to create. Using what you have to create, um, to Cre-re-ate something new is a very cool process. It is a benefit to the Mother Ship – Earth, because, you know, she’s a mom and she’s getting tired, and worn, and she’s already given a heck of a lot.
