What a month it has been...
I have moved from the western U.S. (Reno, Nevada) to eastern U.S. (Greensboro, North Carolina) and to quote the Grateful Dead "what a long strange trips it's been" AND it ain't over yet folks.
Suffice it to say we have experienced white outs, power outs, sleeping in the car or on the floor, no hot water, our "stuff" being lost on the road for over three weeks, and limited technology for an extended period of time.
The good news is that in a few weeks this will all be behind us and we'll be working our way back to technology, a comfortable life routine, and so on.
The better news is that I will be forever changed by the experience AND I will continue to contemplate things I believed to be settled. Like "this is the way it is going to be until the day I die"...
...AND now I am taking nothing for granted.
Did I come to this realization graciously?
Oh HEAVENS no!
Dare I say I may have been an asshole along the way... heck, I may still have my momentary episodes of asshole.
Regardless this journey has led me to relish some ill forgotten modes of creativity and writing.
I am looking into getting an old fashioned manual typewriter (an Underwood perhaps, a Royal, a Smith-Corona, who knows?)... I am also looking into getting a quill and a inkwell as well as stocking up on legal pads, journals, and my favorite style of Bic pens.
Why? Some of you may be asking; most of you don't care; and perhaps at least one clever minx will have figured it all out before we arrive at my BIG REVEAL.
In this trying time of limited and varying levels of access to technology... "technology" being used specifically in reference to high speed internet, computers, and other personal digital devices... and not the broader definition of the sum of techniques, skills, methods, and processes used in the production of goods or services or in the accomplishment of objectives which could technically (pun intended) include quills, inkwells, pen, paper, and manual typewriters... especially if my writing would broadly be considered a good (or a service)...
I have learned (or RE-learned as the case may be) that using different techniques in the act of creation can differently inform said creativity and result in an altnerative outcome solely based on the technology (or lack thereof) used in the process.
Ergo I can achieve varying results by using various tools. Thus broadening my creative output, my creative work AND leading to the question "Does technology squash creativity?"
If "squash" means eliminate the answer is no BUT if it means LIMIT the answer is ONE HUNDRED PERCENT UNEQUIVOCALLY: YES!!!
I have known this for some time in my musical creative ventures. I compsose differently depending on my methods and tools (e.g. pencil and paper, acoustic instruments, electronic instruments, analog recording studio, digital recording, etc.). Also, I have not been a very gracious critic of some "producers" or "artists" who (in my estimation) have no creative talent other than their skill at using modern day apps and tools to create music-like output.
It took acts of God, Nature, poor decisions and execution on my part, and other things for me to realize this with my writing.
I am coming out the other end of this adversity a better writer, more easily accessing different parts of my creative engine simply through the use of different tools and methods.
And so I end this entry with: CHANGE IT UP!!! Whatever your skill, aim, objective, outlet, product, service... try different tools and methods to get to the same end and access different parts of YOUR creative engine. You will be the better for it.
I know that I am.