23 October 2008

A "Fine" Friday

Deepest apologies to anyone who saw the blog go all wonky last night. I am trying to implement some of the things I learned from Sessions 2 & 3 so I can post about them.

Ditto to anyone who sees any wonkyness this weekend. If I pop up in your reader 100+ times, I am terribly sorry. Just "mark all as read" until Monday.

So there is a blogger I think you all should meet. Her name is Maggie, Dammit.

No, really. Maggie, Dammit at Ok, Fine, Dammit.

A short time ago, Maggie held a contest to give away a pair of earrings I made. Of course, because I have been pointy-toe-boot deep in the throws of The Great Blog Move '08, I missed the start and didn't send you all over there and generally was no help at all. (Seriously my fault.)

Maggie pressed on through my FUBAR and awarded the earrings to Cathy, a fabu blogger herself. Go check her out and say hi. Bring a snack with you, though. You will get hungry.

This week, she introduced us to her fab new writing space. It's warm, it's cozy, it's all hers and I am just about 7 shades of green with envy. In her post she says:

Why, as writers, do we have such a hard time validating what we do? Why is it done in our spare time, tucked in garages and basements, hidden behind computer solitaire games at the coffee shop? Why do we call it a hobby, a craft, a leisurely pursuit? Why do we say, “I am in advertising sales, but I like to write on the side?” Why do we think it can’t be done?

You have no idea how many times I have pondered this. I am a person who thrives on success. Anyone remember the scene from The Simpsons when the school shuts down and Lisa has a meltdown? "Grade me! Grade me!" Yeah, that could be me. Only paler. I know this and own it.

However.

Through blogging and my awesome mommy fueled identity crisis I have come to a startling realization. 3 times in my life I have chosen to do something which owes it's measurable success standards to the opinions of others.

3 times I have chosen. Music, writing, and crafting.

I did it to myself, dang it!

This was my comment to Maggie:

I pretty much have issues with any statement that begins, “I am a…” I was recently asked about Etsy, and whether I was an artist. I answered, “Well, no. A crafter.” As if I needed to correct them and disavow the extra credit they had awarded me. Come to think of it, I was asked pretty much the same thing about baking recently and answered similarly.

I am. A writer. A crafter. An artist. A flippin’ purple frog if I put my mind to it, and we should all stop qualifying ourselves.

Hubby and I have had many conversations about this subject over the last 12 (yup, 12 this week) years. Tonight, I was telling him about Maggie's post and talking about labels.

I told Hubby that I have come to realize that if I label myself as XYZ, then in my mind I have to follow that with some measure of success as an XYZ. Otherwise, I fail. Better not to try than to fail.

He said, "But if you don't try, you'll never know."

My answer? "Yes, but failing is worse than not knowing."

Blech. I annoy me too.

I would not accept this answer from Monkey, so why is it ok for me?

Short answer: It's not.

12 comments:

  1. Wooooo HOOOOOOO!!! I am typng this on my blackberry as I drive, that's how excited I am for you! I am a safety menace! For you! Because, yay! It's not! And you know! And you ARE! And yay!!

    (I seriously hope this made sense to more than just me.)

    Woohoo!

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  2. OH MY GOSH!!!! I LOVE LOVE LOVE THIS POST! I too choose music, wiritng and crafting! And you are right - ne need to stop quantifying! Ok! I am definintely giving a shout-out to you on my blog for your shout-out (how do you like that???) Also - thanks for stopping by from BATW!

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  3. I love this post. It makes oodles of sense to me. Good stuff!

    You have an award waiting for you at my blog, too! =)

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  4. I haven't thought about the constraints of labeling myself. I tend to give myself a lot of labels, so if I'm feeling constrained I just creat another label :)

    Thanks for submitting a post again!

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  5. I'm loving the new look of your blog. :)

    And you're a fabu blogger!!

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  6. Forget the labels...keep everyone guessing. If you asked my husband how to describe me he would just shake his head. My interest change quite often, but it makes me happy. I think I read we are suppose to try new things often so our brains keep working and don't quit on us or something like that. Mine is starting to shut down so that is may way of keeping things going.

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  7. I love this post. You're absolutely right! I never admit to people outside the world that I'm a blogger because I think they just won't get it. (visiting from BPOTW)

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  8. Greetings from Virginia, which, of course, is for Lovers, Politics & History! Thanks so much for dropping in for my BATW Day in the Sun...Love your blog & REALLY love this particular post! Please drop by to see me again sometime soon!

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  9. Wow, interesting post. I love to paint, play the piano, make jewelry, the list goes on and on... but if someone asks me, "Are you a pianist?" I respond, "OH, no. I'm not professional. I just like playing the piano." Same thing for any other craft that I dabble in. I don't own the skill, I "enjoy it." But that doesn't give me credit, does it?

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  10. How about something like we "eclectic freelancers"?? BAHAHAHA I love to create. For me it's writing and photography, but I like to include gardening in there too and then other stuff starts sneaking in there. I hate labels. (I found you on BPOTW)

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  11. Wow!
    How fantastic!
    I'm following you from a comment you left for "Can't Hardly Wait".
    I'm so glad I found you.
    What a wonderful place to be.

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  12. Excellent Post. Well said.. ;o) ooxx`jodi

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