The web

So the other night I was talking with a friend and I brought up a question that I have thought about for a long time. Here it is:
If I knew that whatever I was creating, drawing script song poem painting dance whatever, was going to be destroyed the instant it is finished, how would that change the creative process? Would I ever be able to finish it? Would it be worth doing?
I think for years I have fundamentally believed that there are two types of art or at least two types of artists. Those who create for themselves and those who create for an audience. I’m still not sure which kind I am. I understand that even if one creates for “oneself”, wow that sounds clinical, anyway I understand that even the artist becomes an audience. But what is the driving force that leads anyone to attempt any sort of artistic creation? Is it a need to be useful, to be praised, to eat, or just a means to some sort of other ends?

The morning after I had this discussion I was walking to the train and I walked right into a spider’s web. Great, just what I needed. I was not happy about getting this sticky hard to tell if I still have any on me cause if I do it’s going to tickle and drive me nuts thread all over myself. But as I walked through this web, I saw the spider out of the corner of my eye. Now, I don’t make a habit of being very sympathetic to spiders. But I felt like I almost needed to apologize to this guy. And then I sort of understood. Creating is a part of life. It’s a NECESSITY of life. The act of creating and re-creating is all around, funny enough, in something we call God’s creation. That spider probably took a good portion of the night to build that web. It was a beautiful web. But he built it last night because at some point yesterday it was destroyed. And he’ll build another one tonight because today, it will be destroyed again.

So, I’m making a pact with myself and you all are welcome to join in. I’m going to create something today. I have no idea what it will be or if it will be here tomorrow. I don’t know if it will be good or interesting. But I do know that by creating something , anything, I will be living actively in the knowledge that this is why God invented me. And there’s just no better way to spend a day.