Make Your Mark

Beyonce has it wrong. It’s not girls who run the world. It’s makers. (Some of which are girls obviously).

Makers have great responsibility. Through their art, creation of functional implements, music and the like, they tell the history of our world through their perspective.

I’ve always admired the makers. I’m not one, but I sincerely respect them. I do try to do some making in my own “good-weird” way. You know, making things that are absent of comparisons. For example, I’m fairly certain my over-sized door decoration of the abominable snow man was the best around. It was also the worst around. Why? Because it was the only one around. I didn’t have to worry that my work neighbors had higher quality door yetis than mine. Or that they had practiced their craft longer than I highlighting my inadequacies in upholstered office doors. Making weird things has been my own private oasis of being able to try to be creative with none of the risk.

Obviously, makers drive the world. Whether it’s caveman grog who made the first hammer, or a current artist just trying to create beauty; we need makers.

I’d like to think that I’ve been able to appreciate the artistry that goes in to creating sculptures, crafts, projects, and the like. But I don’t think I’ve fully appreciated the vulnerability that’s associated. I’m sure that vulnerability is not the word that some burly dude creating a manly thing is thinking, but it’s there. Makers take some thought in their head, and turn it in to something that others can experience. It’s like an invitation to their brain. Not in a zombie fuel way, but in a “welcome to the world as I see it” way.

I’m sure not every person or every project comes with doubt, but I’ve seen (and conducted) enough unfinished projects to know that at least some of the time there’s uncertainty there. Once you finish a project, you’re saying “this is the best I was willing/able to do on this.” That can be hard to put our there.

Luckily, there are a lot of different ways to succeed in “making.”

I remember a class at Shasta College back in the 1900’s. There was discussion about preferences in what people read. I was too old for what was said to be new information, but basically the point was that there’s not so much writing that is good or bad. There’s just writing that you do, or do not, like. The precise example that I conjured when considering this at that time was Pulp Fiction. I love everything about it. But not everybody does, and that’s okay. I mean, they’re wrong,…but that’s okay.

What work is good is based on my definition. Just because I don’t like something doesn’t mean it’s bad.

So to the makers of all things, thank you for what you do. It can be a challenge to put your efforts on display. Thank your deciding it’s worth it to help put your stamp on the world.

Thanks for reading!