Stacked Against Us

The real world has barriers.
Massive stone hurdles and castle-like walls that are constantly thrown down in front of us as we try to make headway towards our dreams. Some are easily sidestepped or climbed over. While others are the ones we slam face first into. For the struggling artist or "waiting to be published" author, the face planting walls can be the obstacles that end our pursuit of lifelong ambitions.

The "regular life's" responsibilities, the mortgage and car payments, combined with the endless rejection letters and lack of readership, all come to bear with brutal reality and force the creative person to hangup the brushes or set aside the pen and paper. This is one of the most difficult times for an artist. A time to choose between the art and the accepted norm of daily life. Modern life makes us pick between doing what we love and eating.

Much like a youth leaving college without graduating, many of us who encounter these walls say we will go back to the life of creating full time, after the palisade has been conquered. But few, if any, ever actually do. Once it is set aside, the lifestyle and joy of being an artist full time, will never return fully. The mundane drudgery of life will make sure of that.

Even when we attempt to turn off the muses in our heads and return to the 9-5 grind, the flow of inspiration and the waves of words will still soak the barren beaches of our minds. We will have to make the best of the few hours of the day where we still have freedom. Sneaking in a few scant minutes of writing before bed, or during the morning coffee at 5 am. But that is never enough for us. Yet that is all the unfair world allows us.

Maybe the overcoming of these responsibilities, in some "unknown to me" fashion, is what we sacrifice for our art. Maybe its the financial woes we go through, or the emotional hardships with the ones we love who can't understand our passions....maybe it is the ones who give up the most, who are the ones most rewarded in the end.