text • chris rusak

10-19-08

Self-employment.

“When people are in fear, they don’t want to go to work. So many people today have that feeling. Then the fear starts turning into hate, and they begin to hate going to work. Then the hate can turn into anger and people can become angry at their boss and their work.” – David Lynch, from Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity

Today’s announcement from Colin Powell that he supports Barack Obama for president made me very happy. Throughout his tenure as Secretary of State, I felt as if there were often times you could see Powell’s discomfort with the direction of his boss, in interviews, and at press conferences when he would be one of the many cabinet members surrounding the president.

I doubt that Powell let fear take over his own leadership abilities, and when he resigned I had nothing but respect for him, doubly so as it was clear to any perceptive viewer that his resignation went to a deeper level than his own public admissions.

I think that as a nation we cannot hold on to our fears any longer. We cannot be afraid to elect the first African-American to our top office. We cannot be afraid to stand up to the hate mongers who are importing money into the Great State of California trying to amend our constitution to create further class division amongst our citizens. As citizens, we need to overcome the fears that were established for us on September 11th, 2001, and further reinforced by a hate mongering administration in power for the past seven years.

As artists, we need to overcome our own fears of criticism and rejection, and plow and plant our creative fields to grow grains of inspiration and reflection that participants use to nourish their own journeys. And, if we struggle with seeking a purpose to live an Artist’s Life, let these past eight years, and this moment of change we stand at, be a reminder of how the power of inspiration is perhaps one of the greatest challenges we can seek to fulfill when we create our works.