After so many years of writing and playing music I guess I’m a little surprised when someone still tells me to “Hang in there!” Lol… Hang in there for what? I stopped hanging in there after the first five years or so, since I realized there’s nothing to hang in there for. You just keep doing it because you enjoy it, or you stop because you don’t. Just like anything else.
And I know the average person is just trying to be supportive with a gesture like this. “Keep writing!” or “don’t give up!” are a few of the classics. But there’s another vibe you get, sometimes, from those who might have given up their own creative passion years ago. That ‘I’m on a higher level now, because of the sensible (non-creative) choices I made, so the fact that you keep doing it really bothers me – but, by all means, hang in there!’ vibe.
It’s a hollow position though, since it goes hand in hand with the idea of some lotto to be won in the entertainment industry. That winning ticket they might have lost out on somehow. Which is the real reason they dropped out in the first place, since the passion they started with was more driven by the idea of “making it” rather than what they could eventually create. And, of course, we all start with that impression in mind since it’s sown into our culture. It’s the Golden Ticket, and it’s fun to dream that you could be the one, at least in those initial years.
But we all reach that creative fork in the road at some point. No, it’s not a crossroad, like the Robert Johnson kind, it’s just a fork for the rest of us mortals. But that’s when the choice gets made. To keep driving that same interstate, always focused on some distant horizon. Like that ever-elusive asphalt mirage you could never figure out as a kid. Or, you just veer left and set it to cruise, ease back into it, hell, get meditative. It’s where a simple truth will dawn on you. That, no, we all weren’t meant to be famous, but we all were meant to create. You just got to hang in there.
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