What is your art? That which most occupies your thoughts, your heart, your spare time?
Eventually it will pay. That’s what they say. Whoever they are.
I heard a song on the radio yesterday that I’ve not heard for years, and I was struck by the following lines:
Don’t feel guilty if you don’t know what you want to do with your life…
the most interesting people I know didn’t know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives
some of the most interesting 40 year olds I know still don’t
Baz Luhrmann – Everybody’s Free (to wear sunscreen)
It followed a conversation I’d had a couple of weeks ago with an old friend who, in response to my frustrations at so far having not found a ‘true purpose’, was very quick to remind me of some of the other highlights of my life. I might not be an expert in x, y or z, and my professional choices thus far may not have changed the world, nor saved any lives, but I’ve not had such a bad time of it. In fact I’ve had, and am still having, a pretty great time. As I write this, my mum has just sent me an excerpt from a letter I wrote to my parents when I was 18 years old and travelling around Australia, which was funnily enough what this song reminded me of when I heard it in the car yesterday.
‘Some of the most interesting 40 year olds I know still don’t…’
And this is how I shall now choose to look at myself. I’m happy at 40 years old, that I can’t sum up my art, passion, talents, direction or identity in a professional title, and that you might need to be sitting comfortably with your favourite drink in hand to hear the answer to the question…. ‘ what do you do?’
An incredibly ambiguous question that has come to mean, for the most part… How do you earn your money? Until now, I’ve been a little embarrassed to answer it, believing myself to have been wasting my time and talents with work for which I had no affinity. However, another quote that I recently stumbled across –
‘You are currently experiencing exactly what you need to experience‘,
has led me to consider the lessons that I perhaps should have learned, the stories there may yet be to tell, and the path that lays ahead of me now, on to which I am tiptoeing cautiously.
For now, my ‘art’ shall be writing, and I shall pursue it with everything I can, and in every moment I have available. Seeking my voice, my way, and the wonder of the journey.
Stuart Westwood 