Damian
09 February 2007

For Valentine’s Day, Matt bought me an iPod. He received one as a present from his parents for Christmas, and I thought it was really cool. (Apple owns industrial design. Everything they create looks sleek and cool and sexy.)

While playing with my sexy (hot pink, by the way) new iPod, I suddenly had the overwhelming desire to create a podcast.  How fun would that be?!

But what would I podcast, I thought to myself.  (Is “podcast” a verb?  It’s difficult to keep current with all the emerging net jargon.)  I don’t want to do a show like Sam has done.  My talents don’t lie in that direction.  Then I thought, I can read something!  But I can’t use copyrighted material, so I would have to read my own work.

Well, that sounds like a lot of fun!

At least, that’s where the idea began.  Fun.  But then I began to worry.  What if it’s crap?  What if I create something that is utter crap?  The fear of creating something subpar — something that people will point to and say, “Whoa, what loser created that?” — kills the idea… dead.

And then I do nothing.  I attempt nothing.  My life, which is finite, is wasted in fear.

Bruce Willis and Russell Crowe may not be the best musicians, but at least they actually did something instead of letting fear strangle their dreams.  There is some really terrible art and stories floating around on the internet, but I say, Good job, people!  You were brave and you created.  F*** the critics!  Dream and do!  Follow your bliss!

I’m thinking now that the title of this blog entry should be “F*** the critics.”  It’s so easy to point out mediocrity.  It’s so easy to belittle, but through belittling we destroy the creations of others and the unmade creations within ourselves.

Now that I have children, I realize how important it is to encourage fledgling attempts.  Lily is not good at using her spoon, but I tell her what a great job she is doing as she spills food everywhere because she is doing a great job.  She’s learning through doing.  If I expected her to be able to use a spoon expertly on her first try and criticized her when she didn’t, all I would be doing is destroying her confidence.  She would no longer attempt new things.

So create.  Nurture your fledgling attempts.  It’s better to create, whatever the final quality may be, than to live in fear.

Since my children are so very young right now, it may take awhile for podcasts to show up on this site, but they will.  Oh yes, they most definitely will.