I'm not an artist, so maybe it's something about the artistic life that makes you think of yourself about being on the run all the time. You have to keep coming up with new stuff all the time, which requires metaphorical motion at least.
But a lot of guys just sit and stagnate. Porn, video games, etc....but also a stable office job. A lot of men are concerned with trying to prevent motion--maintain the patriarchy sure, but also keep a family and household stable enough to allow the kids to launch.
I think the thing is stagnation makes for boring fiction and art. Nothing happens, you have no conflict and no story. (It's like the old joke about Batman--he should go to therapy! But then there'd be no more comic book.) But perhaps that's art *not* imitating life. If life is mostly stable or changing only gradually most of the time, we'll want to read about the interesting bits, the ones where it changes rapidly and stuff happens.
I like this, thank you. There is a lot to stagnation.
Why do you think some of us stagnate? When did we learn than change was impossible? What are we serving by now growing or moving? Are growing and moving the same thing or different?
Stagnation is comfortable in many cases. Even if you don't think change is impossible, you may not *want* it.
One of the things I've realized is that people don't all want the same things in life. Many people find change threatening or simply unpleasant. If you have a situation you like, even if it's not that great from the outside, you don't want it to change.
And change is unpleasant itself to many people. People vary widely in their desire for novelty. Some people have just found their happy place (possibly after a long unhappy prior period) and don't want to move.
I think the idea, colloquially, is growing is supposed to be change in a positive direction (gaining self-confidence, becoming more skilled at something), whereas moving is just any change--developing a drug addiction would be moving but not growing. And 'positive' is very subjective--you might become more self-confident and less good at listening, for instance.
Wandered in from another blog.
I'm not an artist, so maybe it's something about the artistic life that makes you think of yourself about being on the run all the time. You have to keep coming up with new stuff all the time, which requires metaphorical motion at least.
But a lot of guys just sit and stagnate. Porn, video games, etc....but also a stable office job. A lot of men are concerned with trying to prevent motion--maintain the patriarchy sure, but also keep a family and household stable enough to allow the kids to launch.
I think the thing is stagnation makes for boring fiction and art. Nothing happens, you have no conflict and no story. (It's like the old joke about Batman--he should go to therapy! But then there'd be no more comic book.) But perhaps that's art *not* imitating life. If life is mostly stable or changing only gradually most of the time, we'll want to read about the interesting bits, the ones where it changes rapidly and stuff happens.
I like this, thank you. There is a lot to stagnation.
Why do you think some of us stagnate? When did we learn than change was impossible? What are we serving by now growing or moving? Are growing and moving the same thing or different?
Thanks!
Stagnation is comfortable in many cases. Even if you don't think change is impossible, you may not *want* it.
One of the things I've realized is that people don't all want the same things in life. Many people find change threatening or simply unpleasant. If you have a situation you like, even if it's not that great from the outside, you don't want it to change.
And change is unpleasant itself to many people. People vary widely in their desire for novelty. Some people have just found their happy place (possibly after a long unhappy prior period) and don't want to move.
I think the idea, colloquially, is growing is supposed to be change in a positive direction (gaining self-confidence, becoming more skilled at something), whereas moving is just any change--developing a drug addiction would be moving but not growing. And 'positive' is very subjective--you might become more self-confident and less good at listening, for instance.