Creativity, Art, and the Ongoing, Upcoming End of of the World

    How does one you focus on art as the world crumbles around you? How can I justify continuing to work on my novel, to paint and draw and pursue my little creative endeavors, when the very things I thought defined not only country but society I was raised in have dissipated like mist in the morning sun?

    I don't know. I get lost in the worlds I attempt to create but then I look up and see the pain, the terror, the hate. All so widespread, so unacceptable at the same time as they are excused by pundits and lawmakers and strangers and family.

    The things done in my country or around the world in my country's name fill me either with a sense of hopelessness or rage so deep it seems to shake me at my very core. To vibrate within me in either a slow, dull or quick, rapid resonance. When humanity matters less than money, less than the expansionist instincts of the very worst kind of people, how can I react but with either of those emotions? To feel less would make me feel less human.

    But how do, I an average citizen with little to no marketable skills, try and instill change in a system so broken, so decrepit that is held up by scotch tape, well-wishes, and the collective belief in the fantasy of a dream long lost?

    I realize I am rambling, that I am all over the place, that I have asked questions and offered vague criticisms without any suggestion on my part on how to fix it. Well here is a bad one but, perhaps, it is the best I can come up with.

    Art tells the story of now. Sometimes not well but it is an encapsulation of the things that came before it and the way things are now. Each work a little time capsule of perspective. A way to say "I was here. I contributed to the ongoing struggles and triumphs of humanity." 

    I think that is the most any of us can hope for. Whether through our work, our children, our legacy we hope that something marks our fleeting existence on this Earth.

    So why do pursue my art as the world burns? Because I was here.

    And that is enough for now.

    JK