In school, we were taught to learn things, but were we ever taught to love them?
Did they teach us to love the landscape when they quizzed us on the fifty state capitals? Did they teach us to love reading when they prescribed us a list of books? Did they teach us to love the human story and take an interest in the peoples of the world when they had us memorize the little rhyme about 1492?
I know they meant well. They wanted us to know things.
Maybe they even wanted us to love knowing things and to love working to know them, but I’m not sure that’s the same as loving the things themselves.
Part of the joy of doing something daily is learning to love the thing you’ve decided to do.
For instance, if your thing is writing poems and you do it everyday, you will inevitably be moved to learn a few things about poetry. You’ll come to know the names of poets, become familiar with their poems, and build a broad vocabulary which enables you label the various parts, styles, and techniques they used to create them.
But it’s in the daily writing that you’ll really learn to love poetry (and sometimes hate it, of course).
It’s there where you’ll come to build a kinship with other poets as, each day, you begin to better understand why they were so obsessed with their craft.
It’s there where you’ll often be surprised by the words and phrases and ideas that pop into your mind.
It’s there where you’ll be visited by a sense of pride and satisfaction in having created something you never dreamed you would.
And when you’re away from your writing desk, you’ll notice things, things you hadn’t before, things like sights, sounds, and smells that you’ll find yourself wanting to bring home and include in your work. And you’ll learn to love those things too.
This, of course, is not just true of poetry. It works the same for writing stories or works of nonfiction. It works the same for drawing and painting and sculpting. It works the same for acting and taking photographs and making films. It works the same for any creative act you commit to everyday.
When we feel depressed, we say we have no interest in things, or, no love to give to them, but doing something daily is a way to fall in love again – with our lives, with the world, with the things and the people inside it, and, yes, even with ourselves.
Do something daily. It’s good for your love life.
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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Ken,
I agree, doing something daily, even if it’s only for a few minutes is a wonderful practice!
Thank you, Ken. I needed this so, so very much today.
jen.
Your very first sentence is the reason we decided to send our son to a Waldorf school. There I believe they DO teach kids to love the things they are learning, and perhaps not surprisingly, they do this by incorporating the arts. Learning Colorado history and geography involves hiking and drawing the landscape. A block on animals involves researching an animal and writing a report which includes facts about the animal’s habitat and habits, but also an original poem about the animal. It’s a very different education than the one I got for sure!
Hey, Ken, now I’m doing something daily–my cartoons. Every day I am creating an animated microshort to post on my little cartoon vlog (www.movinpitchers-ladytooner.blogspot.com), and a one-panel cartoon for my webcomics “Fashville” (http://fashville.thecomicseries.com) and “The Best of Our Follies” (http://ourfollies.thecomicseries.com). Check ‘em out and feel the love! I do!