In trying to describe a habit I think of anything that I lean to naturally, any behaviors that lead to known quantities or expected outcomes. In doing any sort of body work (yoga, deep breathing, anything related to singing are examples) the efficiencies provided by our physical systems are meant to assist in ease of completion, yet over time, they provide negative benefits. Even habits of discipline can aid lack of mindfulness, blinkered thinking or stuffiness when looking at new material.
Donna asks, "what are helpful habits and what are not, and what makes up the difference? Where do these habits come from...what kind of habits are actually going on inside and/or are characteristic of "the big middle?" Does one have to identify habits in order to bust out of them...." (see her comments attached to the transformation post for the full monte).
The big middle is the ideal 'location' to challenge habits because getting those pesky bad habits exposed to sunlight and examination reduces the likelihood they can do lasting damage. However some habits are of a friendly nature and need nurturing. Which are the weeds and which the flowers?
One place to start is where I am now, what exactly is the big middle?
- of the country
- my possible existence
- a transitional spot or the main event
- is my big middle full of the same artifacts and milestones as it is for others (hunting for universality)
Examination of habits invites a review of roles. A feature of the big middle is where there is room for pre-defined roles to be set aside for more rewarding, dimensional and bespoke behaviors and processes. Recent writings on mass behavior suggest that American men returning from the horrors of WWII sought structure and predictability and laid out the suburban landscape that directs family life in this country since the 1950's up to today (see this week's Economist magainze). Well defined roles do enable hard work, stability and goal setting. They also occasionally stifle creativity, hinder innovation and at worst provide the backdrop for atrocity as smothered individuals thrash about.
As we assume a role, we acquire habits to suit. This is where danger lurks, definition becomes hardened and the imposition of external expectation leaves us in a strait jacket. Stieg Larsson's thoughts on girls with dragon tattoos exemplifies the unpleasantness of society that imposes views on individuals without flexibility or attention to room for individuality.
So dump all habits and bust out of our roles? Like all of creative conundrums, it's never that easy.
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Transformation
To bring 2010 to a close I signed up for transformation. Really? Yup, I made a plan, I told a couple of people, I set off. That's a big word, what's the idea here?
I wanted to know if it is possible to pursue real change actively, alone or with assistance. Within the big middle does change only arrive as a kick in the head or on the crest of some unwonted disaster? I have defined 'the big middle' as a time for semi-affluent types that spans 30-65 (the Heartland says 38-70, so I'm in the ball park; Jonathan Franzen also has ideas on this topic). The idea is to explore how we behave when we step outside what is required and play in the space known as what is possible with a bit of extra effort.
I have become increasingly averse to risk taking, hesitating to state a sketchy goal that might require inconvenient follow up. I find I never get after myself in ways that hold me fully accountable or skirt the possibility of humiliation, can I share my privacy if it means later awkwardness. How can I unload this behemoth of mindset, behavior pattern and limiting construct? Is this a safe haven or a nice box with what looks like a control panel painted in pastels that drip down the wall when it rains?
With only a few days left in the calendar, I headed off to the Midwestern hinterland, literally the Heartland (which is a place, not a concept; check the reference using: Illinois, Gilman). I had a few stated goals, mostly less well conceived, hazy hopes. Sounds like my favorite bad dream on the day before school starts.
Since this is just a lighthearted post, I feel the need to post disclaimers. This isn't a recipe for anyone else, I can't repeat it, there is no pattern for good luck or happiness. It's just a reminder to myself not to be so lacking in initiative or, better yet, in courage. Lots of help is out there but a small request is the first order of the day. It turns out that the instant I ask for assistance help is at hand.
I wanted to know if it is possible to pursue real change actively, alone or with assistance. Within the big middle does change only arrive as a kick in the head or on the crest of some unwonted disaster? I have defined 'the big middle' as a time for semi-affluent types that spans 30-65 (the Heartland says 38-70, so I'm in the ball park; Jonathan Franzen also has ideas on this topic). The idea is to explore how we behave when we step outside what is required and play in the space known as what is possible with a bit of extra effort.
I have become increasingly averse to risk taking, hesitating to state a sketchy goal that might require inconvenient follow up. I find I never get after myself in ways that hold me fully accountable or skirt the possibility of humiliation, can I share my privacy if it means later awkwardness. How can I unload this behemoth of mindset, behavior pattern and limiting construct? Is this a safe haven or a nice box with what looks like a control panel painted in pastels that drip down the wall when it rains?
With only a few days left in the calendar, I headed off to the Midwestern hinterland, literally the Heartland (which is a place, not a concept; check the reference using: Illinois, Gilman). I had a few stated goals, mostly less well conceived, hazy hopes. Sounds like my favorite bad dream on the day before school starts.
Since this is just a lighthearted post, I feel the need to post disclaimers. This isn't a recipe for anyone else, I can't repeat it, there is no pattern for good luck or happiness. It's just a reminder to myself not to be so lacking in initiative or, better yet, in courage. Lots of help is out there but a small request is the first order of the day. It turns out that the instant I ask for assistance help is at hand.
Sunday, December 12, 2010
The purpose of creativity
A general point of agreement amongst highly productive creative artists is that inspiration is for amateurs. To be disciplined, to be available for the next big thought requires a routine and a willingness to get down to work. Underneath that means that a certain amount of work is not going to lead to a new creative output.
What is the purpose of creativity? I know that I sustain higher energy levels when I am tapping in to my creative work stream or pool or whatever it is that gives me new thoughts or the desire to express something in a new format. I simply feel I'm a whole being when my creative thoughts come together into realized work. I also feel more successful when I have chances for collaboration.
Recently there has been a lot of writing about collaboration in the business press. For many years mercantile processes involved either highly hierarchical (read uncreative) productivity or downright poor labor conditions to produce commodity related products. Are we now in an era where new concepts and services might only be possible if collaboration in support of creativity and innovation is the way forward? I hope so.
I would like to think that a framework of process that supports artistic creativity. Think of it as scaffolding when working on the construction of a new form. New forms are the products of creativity. I have found that a framework I developed for being able to dance and later to sing (starting with learning) has worked also for learning and producing in less traditional creative environments. I believe this is born out if we look at highly productive artists who switch media (check out performers who produce wonderful drawings or paintings). How does productivity in the plastic arts produce fine chefs? Does craftmanship play a role?
Craftmanship is only a part of the creative process, but beginning with that basis can be freeing when proper constraints are in place. Knowing how to produce a fine work, as a craftsman, provides keys for when to continue burnishing a piece and when to let the work stand. This relates back to the big middle where constraints can provide wonderful opportunities for new outlets.
What is the purpose of creativity? I know that I sustain higher energy levels when I am tapping in to my creative work stream or pool or whatever it is that gives me new thoughts or the desire to express something in a new format. I simply feel I'm a whole being when my creative thoughts come together into realized work. I also feel more successful when I have chances for collaboration.
Recently there has been a lot of writing about collaboration in the business press. For many years mercantile processes involved either highly hierarchical (read uncreative) productivity or downright poor labor conditions to produce commodity related products. Are we now in an era where new concepts and services might only be possible if collaboration in support of creativity and innovation is the way forward? I hope so.
I would like to think that a framework of process that supports artistic creativity. Think of it as scaffolding when working on the construction of a new form. New forms are the products of creativity. I have found that a framework I developed for being able to dance and later to sing (starting with learning) has worked also for learning and producing in less traditional creative environments. I believe this is born out if we look at highly productive artists who switch media (check out performers who produce wonderful drawings or paintings). How does productivity in the plastic arts produce fine chefs? Does craftmanship play a role?
Craftmanship is only a part of the creative process, but beginning with that basis can be freeing when proper constraints are in place. Knowing how to produce a fine work, as a craftsman, provides keys for when to continue burnishing a piece and when to let the work stand. This relates back to the big middle where constraints can provide wonderful opportunities for new outlets.
Sunday, November 14, 2010
More Thoughts from the Big Middle
After considering the vast opportunities that are part of life without many boundaries I find myself seeking structure and constraint. Artistically it is always simpler to produce a new piece when some definition of what drove the work or inspired the thinking has been identified. But is it always good to share the construct? Critics rush in where rules of engagement are known. There is no shortage of, 'but you didn't' when falling short of a difficult or murky goal.
Revisiting a subject is both enriching and painful when folding in learning from the first attempt and gatherings from the meta-structure. And the fifth attempt should yield yet a different lesson, but too much working the dough and you have a starter tough as nails and nasty tasting as a boot. I long to capture the lofty spirit without introducing bombast or silliness. Does that require just the right spice, word or dance step? Can I get my point across without being adept?
The beginning of the big middle seems full of space, light, adventure. Yet without my alethiometer or a compass of some sort I have visited the gardens of several potentates without learning the language of the land and certainly no taste of pomegranite was there for me. It turns out that when I have no expectations whatsoever I can learn nothing in return. Who expected that the opposite of close minded turns out to be mindless, or worse yet heartless?
As a practice within a private space I have set goals for many years. I'm not sure why I have a drive to do this, but some findings I can share are these. If you wish to set goals, you need to write them down or they are just fairy stories, entirely useless. Some of them had better be ridiculous, either fun or impossible or it is just drudgery or self-flagelation. Set a cycle for this (think periodic like monthly or yearly), if you just do it in some chaotic fashion you won't understand what they mean later.
And what I mean by later is the cool part. They are absolutely meaningless as goals all by themselves. Hurray, I'm free, goals are not part of the critics packpack. Where they actually help me is that first I set them out in some sort of written format and then I revisit them later. They all get noted in the same place so it is easy to see what I dreamt, how I thought it worked out a year later (in my case) and then over a longer time what those longer term thoughts meant to my earlier self.
The value of life in the Big Middle is that there is some wisdom available. The difficulty is that I am still working out what precious learnings have value and what tools will assist most is mining some wisdom.
Revisiting a subject is both enriching and painful when folding in learning from the first attempt and gatherings from the meta-structure. And the fifth attempt should yield yet a different lesson, but too much working the dough and you have a starter tough as nails and nasty tasting as a boot. I long to capture the lofty spirit without introducing bombast or silliness. Does that require just the right spice, word or dance step? Can I get my point across without being adept?
The beginning of the big middle seems full of space, light, adventure. Yet without my alethiometer or a compass of some sort I have visited the gardens of several potentates without learning the language of the land and certainly no taste of pomegranite was there for me. It turns out that when I have no expectations whatsoever I can learn nothing in return. Who expected that the opposite of close minded turns out to be mindless, or worse yet heartless?
As a practice within a private space I have set goals for many years. I'm not sure why I have a drive to do this, but some findings I can share are these. If you wish to set goals, you need to write them down or they are just fairy stories, entirely useless. Some of them had better be ridiculous, either fun or impossible or it is just drudgery or self-flagelation. Set a cycle for this (think periodic like monthly or yearly), if you just do it in some chaotic fashion you won't understand what they mean later.
And what I mean by later is the cool part. They are absolutely meaningless as goals all by themselves. Hurray, I'm free, goals are not part of the critics packpack. Where they actually help me is that first I set them out in some sort of written format and then I revisit them later. They all get noted in the same place so it is easy to see what I dreamt, how I thought it worked out a year later (in my case) and then over a longer time what those longer term thoughts meant to my earlier self.
The value of life in the Big Middle is that there is some wisdom available. The difficulty is that I am still working out what precious learnings have value and what tools will assist most is mining some wisdom.
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Taking a Trip with the World Kitchen
If you haven't tried a class at Chicago's World Kitchen, you are missing out on more than food. I recently signed up for "Antojitos for Independencia" with the City's Executive Chef, Judith Hines. This day became extra special for me because I got to take an armchair 'trip' to Mexico.
I have taken several classes before, each one entirely different in theme from any other. Part of what makes courses there so very deluxe is that Judith and her team do all the kinds of work that make a restaurant hum, yet the students have the sense of truly learning about and producing the dishes that we then devour in spirited communion at the end, generally while talking with our mouths full. Each class begins with a detailed yet personal history covering aspects of the food on offer. The class size ranges from 20-25 people, and all the food stuffs, herbs and spices and any special presentation materials (for example the classic Mexican hats a proper indenpendence day presentation) are shared round the room. After a half hour of instruction and virtual travelog, we divide into teams and get down to work with our team of master chefs on hand to advise and give spot instruction on knife skills, the proper reduction consistency or how to present a finished dish with a flourish.
For this class, Judith spun a story smacking with details that were too outrageous for fiction. I found myself in a small town in central Mexico preparing for a wedding. First we heard about someone else's that ended in a kidnap. Perhaps the bride was not so eager to marry her intended and she arranged for another groom? Next our master chef walked us through the year I might spend in preparation for my own wedding.
To begin with I would carry around a book to family and friends to catalog what items of food would be brought the week prior to the big event. My expectations for largesse would be based on what I had provided for her event the previous year (a lesson to not to be stingy when giving gifts). Based on the year's crops and husbandry bounty, I might have quite a lot of food, or it might be more presentation and less caloric. No matter what there would be months of prep work and then a week of reviewing the final ingredients and determining the menu. In order to have those lovely, fluffy corn tortillas, first the corn will grow, then it will be picked and dried, hulled and ground, soaked and then finally cooked and prepared for our wedding feast. And that's only the beginning.
In Mexican cooking, nothing is ever cooked just once. After all the drama with the tortillas, there is what you put in them. I was lucky enough to be on the team that prepared the Taquitos with Chipotle Chicken and Potato (rolled like fat cigars and then deep fried!). Each item that goes into the taquitos is first rolled or pressed or dried, then roasted, then reduced in a sauce or sauteed. For the expectant bride, she is coached for a year, living with her future mother-in-law so her cooking will be identical and her husband will feel at home once they are wed.
For us as students, by the time we were ready to fry the fully prepped taquitos with delicious, beautifully spiced tomato with multiple chiles and gently mashed potatoes with yet different chiles we had 7 people working for an hour and a half (10 hours of labor). Mexican cooking is best as a group effort. We had a group with varying degrees of experience and with this complex recipe, we inevitably mixed up our chiles and worried about how thick the sauce should be. We went through pots and pans like crazy and our devoted staff kept a step ahead of us with rapid dish washing and kind supervision.
When the little 'cigars' were complete, Judith showed us how to arrange a large basket with an appealing display of multitudinous, crunchy taquitos sauced with orange, green and white to match the colors of the Mexican flag, for this was our independence day celebration, for Mexico 200 years in 2010. This was only one of eight dishes and two delicious fruit mojitos. As patrons of the celebrations, we tucked in with spirit, Mucho Gusto y Viva Mejico!
I have taken several classes before, each one entirely different in theme from any other. Part of what makes courses there so very deluxe is that Judith and her team do all the kinds of work that make a restaurant hum, yet the students have the sense of truly learning about and producing the dishes that we then devour in spirited communion at the end, generally while talking with our mouths full. Each class begins with a detailed yet personal history covering aspects of the food on offer. The class size ranges from 20-25 people, and all the food stuffs, herbs and spices and any special presentation materials (for example the classic Mexican hats a proper indenpendence day presentation) are shared round the room. After a half hour of instruction and virtual travelog, we divide into teams and get down to work with our team of master chefs on hand to advise and give spot instruction on knife skills, the proper reduction consistency or how to present a finished dish with a flourish.
For this class, Judith spun a story smacking with details that were too outrageous for fiction. I found myself in a small town in central Mexico preparing for a wedding. First we heard about someone else's that ended in a kidnap. Perhaps the bride was not so eager to marry her intended and she arranged for another groom? Next our master chef walked us through the year I might spend in preparation for my own wedding.
To begin with I would carry around a book to family and friends to catalog what items of food would be brought the week prior to the big event. My expectations for largesse would be based on what I had provided for her event the previous year (a lesson to not to be stingy when giving gifts). Based on the year's crops and husbandry bounty, I might have quite a lot of food, or it might be more presentation and less caloric. No matter what there would be months of prep work and then a week of reviewing the final ingredients and determining the menu. In order to have those lovely, fluffy corn tortillas, first the corn will grow, then it will be picked and dried, hulled and ground, soaked and then finally cooked and prepared for our wedding feast. And that's only the beginning.
In Mexican cooking, nothing is ever cooked just once. After all the drama with the tortillas, there is what you put in them. I was lucky enough to be on the team that prepared the Taquitos with Chipotle Chicken and Potato (rolled like fat cigars and then deep fried!). Each item that goes into the taquitos is first rolled or pressed or dried, then roasted, then reduced in a sauce or sauteed. For the expectant bride, she is coached for a year, living with her future mother-in-law so her cooking will be identical and her husband will feel at home once they are wed.
For us as students, by the time we were ready to fry the fully prepped taquitos with delicious, beautifully spiced tomato with multiple chiles and gently mashed potatoes with yet different chiles we had 7 people working for an hour and a half (10 hours of labor). Mexican cooking is best as a group effort. We had a group with varying degrees of experience and with this complex recipe, we inevitably mixed up our chiles and worried about how thick the sauce should be. We went through pots and pans like crazy and our devoted staff kept a step ahead of us with rapid dish washing and kind supervision.
When the little 'cigars' were complete, Judith showed us how to arrange a large basket with an appealing display of multitudinous, crunchy taquitos sauced with orange, green and white to match the colors of the Mexican flag, for this was our independence day celebration, for Mexico 200 years in 2010. This was only one of eight dishes and two delicious fruit mojitos. As patrons of the celebrations, we tucked in with spirit, Mucho Gusto y Viva Mejico!
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