GLOBAL ALTRUISM THROUGH CREATIVE SELF INDULGENCE

...being  part of an occasional series in which I cast a light on behaviour ordinarily considered by casual observers to be anti-social, when in fact these behaviours, seen in the correct way, can be recognised as beneficial for the entire Societe de Humanitie Masse...what I do, I do for the good of humanity...

Self indulgence, I have often noted, is seriously underrated. Not just as a selfish, personal pursuit, but as a contribution to the greater good.

Sharon and Kenneth Holley have opened a bookshop, apparently it's the first African-American bookshop in Buffalo, NY. The thing that interests me is how Sharon got involved in this project. She likes comics. That's pretty much it.  "I had a real extensive comic collection", she says...one thing lead to another, and now she owns a bookshop. It got me thinking.  Lately I've been noticing people who seem to have led happier lives for having primarily done what they want as often as possible...

Doing what you want as often as possible. It sounds pretty obvious when you just write it down. Thing is, a lot of us really don't do an awful lot of what we want. I'd posit that the response of many to the idea of doing what we want would be that we simply can't - and where would the world be if we all did what we wanted. I'm starting to wonder.

We do a lot of things that are about making money, having a certain standard of living, impressing The Collective Other that we are fit for their company.  There's probably nothing wrong with that. My own philosophy has always been that what we have to do for money should be balanced by what we like to do. What we would do if we won the lottery. I could count on one hand the times when I've thought that, if I won the lottery, I would keep working at whatever I was doing at the time.  I've often wondered if it's possible for the average member of humanity to ever make a good living from what they like to do when they don't have to. I've known a lot of tradesmen and professionals who are highly regarded in their field. Almost without exception, the primary reason they do the job they do is because they realised that they have an aptitude for it and it pays enough to finance their chosen lifestyle. They enjoy the kudos, they enjoy the money, and it is generally a pretty good feeling to know that you're considered highly by your peers...and they'd quit tomorrow if they won the lottery. Engineers who spend all weekend sailing, motorcycling bank managers, the plumber who loves working in his garden.

I had a mate once who was an amateur member of a national sporting team.  Once a month, she'd be flown across the country to train with the elite in her sport. Two or three times a year she would be flown overseas for a week or two to play other countries.  Pretty impressive stuff. I asked her once if her mother used to shout at her to "put that bloody ball away and come and do your homework".  It seemed strange to me that she had earned a college degree and worked hard in a male dominated industry and gained a secure, well paid job - and yet the most amazing thing about her life came out of what she loves to do when she's at home, what she's done whenever she can get the chance.

The Piano Man, Billy Joel, was asked what made him decide to become a musician, and he replied that he didn't know how not to be a musician. He maintained that if you have to force yourself to play scales, or practice this week's piece, you're not really a musician at heart. I thought of my brother, who started learning guitar the same time I did, when we were kids back in the seventies...the guitar never really set me on fire, but Bro couldn't put the thing down...every morning, he'd tune the thing before he went to the bathroom...when he got home from school, the first thing he'd do was pick up the guitar and play...for hours....

I don't know if too many other people are like this, but I find it hard to practice something I'm crap at...it's a major gateway moment for me early on in the piece when I find that things aren't going as easily as I'd pictured them in my mind...and whether the skill I want to learn is important enough to me to struggle through the fumbling early stages of a skill to get to at least a base level of  competence....or, of course, whether I like doing it, even badly...

I also think of the school swimming champion, whose dad had faithfully taken him from a relatively early age down to the pool at 5:30am to swim laps with the club...the kid seemed to have a natural aptitude for it, and with a lot of encouragement and support from dad, he won a lot of medals and trophies...around 16 years old, dad tells the kid that with the last two years of school coming up, the kid can decide for himself at what level he will compete in swimming the following year. The kid says "Thank God. If I never see another swimming pool for the rest of my life, I'll die happy."  Best I know, the kid never endured that black lane line or the smell of chlorine again. It doesn't matter how much fun it looks to other people, I guess - if it's your thing, you'll do whatever you can to get your taste of it regardless of the circumstances. If it's not your thing, you can learn to be competent at it, in a lot of cases we can learn to be pretty good at it...but...we do our best work, we create ART when we do that which we love, and love that which we do....

So, speaking of creating art, among the many activities for  which I don't need my arm twisted, two of my absolute favourites are riding motorcycles and drinking beer.  Yep, a surprise, I know. I don't do either particularly well, but I'm generally happy in my incompetence and even on the occasions I don't perform well, I often end up with a story to tell. It lead to my last two jobs. True story. I took to frequenting one of the local taverns when I landed in this neighbourhood, as one does who wishes to be recognised as a valued member of the local community.  I'd often ride down on the bike or stop in on the way home from a ride around the twisty mountain roads. It's a conversation opener, especially with other people having a similar interest.  One day, out of the blue, the bar owner offers me a job bartending, just filling in during the day on slow Sundays. Interestingly, the offer came at a time when a little extra money came in handy but synchronicity is a whole other subject for another day...

I had just enough bartending experience to get by, and overall I had a great time. I got to hang out at the bar with my mates all day, and the only downside was that I couldn't drink with them until my shift was done. The fact that I used to park the bike out front didn't hurt, either...people who knew me would know I was working and drop in; people who didn't know me saw the bike and thought they'd drop in and see if they wanted to get to know me. For someone who had a tenuous grip on what they were doing when they started, I did good business and averaged 20% in tips...made a bunch of money and had fun doing it - and it just fell out of the sky as a consequence of barhopping. I really think the Universe is trying to tell me something here.

Look, this might be blindingly obvious to everyone but me. Maybe I have been slow to notice, I don't know.  Maybe I have too much time on my hands these days, but just recently it's surprised me how often I meet people who have made a life of doing what they enjoy most.  It's not about financial reward or a lavish lifestyle, although several have been smart enough to combine fun and money...although I wonder whether, say, Tiger can still enjoy a quick back 9 and a few beers on a sunny afternoon at the clubhouse with his mates from across the road... and, after all, there are only just so many paying gigs for mediocre guitarists and trainspotters.

It's more about seeing what it is in life that you get most pleasure from doing - and then organise the rest of your life to give you the greatest amount of time that you can doing that.  More people seem to have started believing that's possible. Follow your Bliss. I think there's worse ways to be.