27 Comments
User's avatar
SLART's avatar

Today I drove a different route

I ate a different breakfast

At a different time

I feel alive.

Expand full comment
Sam's avatar

I really enjoyed this in a masochistic way! The abstract nature of tech and office work is really disheartening. If I wire up a light, the light either comes on or it doesn't. If I build a wall, it's plumb and level, or it falls over. When is marketing, product management, sales, tech support, ever complete?

Expand full comment
SLART's avatar

Thanks for reading. I totally get that. I must admit, I do get temporary satisfaction from running AB tests on a website, when B makes more money than A. But then this keeps going on forever, and making more money, of which I don’t see personally :-D

It’s nothing like the sense of losing myself when I paint. It doesn’t touch it.

But I am grateful for these skills, as they help me with the tech/marketing side of promoting my art. As Steve Jobs said:

“You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something—your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.”

I’ll look back one day, from my studio, I’ve just painted for 8 hours straight, I’m tired, but my soul is satisfied. I go home and spend time with my family, totally present with them, no where else to be.

Expand full comment
Jeanne S's avatar

Truly nothing compares to painting, drawing for losing one’s self. The world and its timetables vanish Poof!

Expand full comment
SLART's avatar

Absolutely, I know you wholeheartedly understand this!

Expand full comment
SLART's avatar

May I ask what it is you "do"? as a job...

Expand full comment
Sam's avatar

I've been in product management for 10 years but I've grown up around people making things with their hands and building things myself in my spare time.

Expand full comment
SLART's avatar

Oh cool, tech products? That’s great. I’d love to be good with my hands in that way, it’s not too late to give it a go. I’ve got quite a few carpenters in my family.

Expand full comment
Donna McArthur's avatar

You always keep us on our toes (or buried beneath our desk, haha)!

Expand full comment
SLART's avatar

Haha I like to mix it up 😂 😉 💀

Expand full comment
Donna McArthur's avatar

It’s awesome!

Expand full comment
SLART's avatar

Thank you kindly :-) How are you doing?

Expand full comment
Donna McArthur's avatar

I’m well thanks, I hope you are too?

Expand full comment
SLART's avatar

Good, so glad to hear that. You had a refreshing hiatus? I’m very well thanks, the post was just a burst of expression but I’m doing very well. Loving being a father.

Expand full comment
Jamal Robinson's avatar

Just started listening to “Work Won’t Love you Back” and this poem hit the nail in the head 😮‍💨

Expand full comment
SLART's avatar

Thanks for reading! Lovely to see you in the comments! I’ll have to check it out:

Expand full comment
Beth Raps's avatar

Alright, I did it! I shared it with joy and glee on FB and LIn! I see I'm late to the fan party for this post, SLART.

I didn't know Blake'd said that, I thought only of Terrence McKenna's "you must have a plan. If you don't have a plan, you will become part of someone else's plan," youtu.be/APAuhoWawH0?si=0mdBOFWu5LIyI7Yt which is so abundantly obvious from what you've made us see with your natural and SLARTificial intelligence (love that)! So, McKenna and Blake, brothers from other mothers across time, who knew?

Btw, at the very start, you wrote, m̶a̶s̶t̶e̶r̶piece with the "aster" crossed out...would you unpack that for us?

Expand full comment
SLART's avatar

Thanks so much for sharing, Beth!

Yes, it’s a wise quote, before it’s time I guess? It’s in someways easier and someways harder to create your own system now. Technically easier, mentally harder due to the distractions. Anyway, I digress!

I love a bit of Terrence, thanks for sharing. I knew you’d appreciate SLARTificial intelligence, you popped into mind when I wrote that! I also know you’d bring me up on crossing out master. In short, I didn’t want to sound like a big head! and it’s also a bit of my self-deprecation coming into play.

Expand full comment
Beth Raps's avatar

So glad you know that. Now you can test yourself to try not crossing it out!

Expand full comment
SLART's avatar

Done!!!

Expand full comment
Beth Raps's avatar

lovelovelove

Oooh! Too great! Bold and beautiful!

Expand full comment
SLART's avatar

Thanks for looking out for me!

Expand full comment
Beth Raps's avatar

Thanks for showing yourself so I can! WE can!

Expand full comment
Joe Haward's avatar

So good.

Expand full comment
SLART's avatar

Thank you Joe! How’s it going?

Expand full comment
Joe Haward's avatar

I'm ok, thanks. I'm taking a few days out to go fishing, which is where I find a real peace. Much needed after some tricky things of late.

Expand full comment