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0Sure, it hurts, but you can’t really blame the guy, I guess. At least he’s being honest.
One of the things you hear most often from people is that when writing, one should write what they know. Unfortunately for me, the vast majority of what I know is fairly archaic at best and absolutely useless to anyone but myself at worst. Every now and then, though, something comes up that I think, “Maybe someone else can actually relate to this.” Today is one of those days.
True perfectionism inhabits the unlikely nexus between narcissism and self loathing and acts like a black hole from which nothing productive can escape. For many people, creative types especially, this probably sounds familiar. On the one hand, we can think that something so ludicrous as perfection can and should be attained by us (narcissism) and on the other, we look at everything we do, see how far from perfection it truly is, and grasp in those moments how silly and impossible that dream is (self-loathing). This often results in its own strange kind of creative life cycle that takes on its own unique shape for each individual. For those harshest of self-critics, very little gets shared with the world, and for others, they simply live on this roller coaster, perhaps sharing but never happy.
The other alternative is to get off the ride and accept the imperfections in ourselves, our lives, and our work, and to maybe even appreciate them as we strive to better ourselves.
I was walking in the park yesterday and enjoying the trees and paths, and watching the animals that live there. I took a moment to sit down on a small stone wall and as I was examining the foliage and the ground around me, I saw a rock lying in the dirt by itself. I picked it up and held it for a bit and examined it. I honestly can’t tell you why I picked it up, the rock itself was wholly unremarkable at first, second, and third glance. It was certainly not the sort of rock one picks up and writes about, but here we are. It wasn’t large or smooth, it didn’t have an unusual shape or color, it was simply a rock covered with small imperfections and grooves, slightly rough on the skin with a sort of dusty brown and gray coloration. For whatever reason, it was these imperfections that stood out to me. Here was this little stone that had taken who knows how many years to form and be shaped and carried to this place, now sitting in my hand.
This imperfect seemingly unremarkable rock was remarkable in that it was unique. Sure, it may be similar to other stones, it certainly shares many of the same properties, but it’s a pretty safe bet that the details of its story are its own and that’s where the beauty lies in most things. I often worry about whether the jokes I write are good enough, whether the blog posts are interesting or insightful enough, whether I myself am good enough, and while those can be good motivators for self improvement, holding back from doing the things that you love out of fear of imperfection does not improve your life or offer anything useful to others.
Nothing in the universe is perfect but that in itself is a strange kind of perfection, if you ask me. It is, at the very least quite lovely if one stops to appreciate what makes things unique.
Is this blog post perfect? Not at all. Is the comic perfect? Nope. But I hope you’ve enjoyed them anyway.
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I wouldn’t take it personally. It’s His view of humanity in general as well, and I can’t say I blame Him.
This really speaks to me.
The background is really nice too.
Dang, God, that was cold.
What do you expect from a cat?
Yes, I’m a month late. What of it? =P
EXACTLY WHERE I AM RIGHT NOW. Thanks for the real talk.
Your comic is one of my favorites! It’s interesting and fun and the archaic information makes it all the better
i enjoyed this blog post. and this comic. i dont feel good enough right now, but im still managing to be happy. pootling along until something improves. we can only do our best, eh
I enjoyed the SHIT out of this. Just Happle Tea updating and returning to this familiar universe makes me smile, and as a creator myself the feeling is all too relatable, and then the funny ending! Next time I’m being a pefectionist I’ll think of this comic and it will cheer me up. Thanks Big K!
Invalidating the ideas for content I have because they’re perceived as unfit for others to consume is just one more way I can give myself the excuse to not put anything in front of anyone else and thus dodge their judgement. I have to commit to improving by reflecting on former action, former productive and creative output. Progress doesn’t come without risk. Part of being a content provider is bombing and then getting up again anyway and learning from it. Part of not being a content provider is deciding that my judgement is better than that of my audience. Like beauty, value is in the eye of the beholder much of the time. Only the creator sees the created work as something to be measured against his projected capacities, everyone else sees the work without the context of what it might be if the creative would just get his shit together. In my experience, the steady stream of content produced by committing oneself to an achievable schedule with regular output is what the audience measures efficacy by.
Every comic can’t be your best comic. They can’t ALL be the best. I need to accept that about my work.
Well said!
When I was in Art School, I struggled with this concept often – I’d fail to complete drawings and other art assignments, as I’d perceive them to be already failures before they were even complete.
A mentor at the time gave me some advice that, while it took some time to sink in, really did help:
“Perfect is the enemy of the Good.”
Essentially, perfection is in contravention to creating something that is good. Part of the process of learning is creating things that we know aren’t perfect. Failure is part of the creative process, part of learning, and part of expressing oneself.
This might help: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IUj6jyoTl0
I have let this perfectionism get in the way of creating art. I had to actually shift mediums completely to realize this (after learning to create in ways that weren’t so fraught with my ideals). I have to say, though, your comic and “voice” are really interesting and unique. They clearly come from a very “you” place, and I enjoy that very much! It’s enough. It’s more than enough.
Actually this made my day~!
I love lil K~!!!
Careful there, your health insurance provider might try to refuse cover costs for self-inflicted burns.
Animism? In Alaska they have Tlingit and Haida tribes (many others too) and in schools students learned about the stories the local natives. The stories about Raven are pretty common/funny.
I have enjoyed your webcomic.
I certainly think this is one of your best.
I’d be plenty happy to have more of that archaic minutiae… I actually really enjoy reading your deconstructions of little-known mythology.
Sounds similar to the Japanese aesthetic concept of wabi-sabi. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wabi-sabi
Mayuri Kurotsuchi would beg to differ. And by “beg,” I mean “do something horrifying to the person saying that and then tell them how much they suck.”
He’s cool: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NY1I8roynqM
I like this, but being a polytheist I feel that having one God would tire him out, make him super grumpy, and then he makes the world terrible for everyone. That’s why I’m a Lokean.
Parenthood in a nutshell