Seeking inspiration in a connected world
It is Sunday morning and I had to be at a job site, this is not a common occurrence but it does happen from time to time. As prepared to leave the house at 0700, I grabbed a few things. I decided to write this post to highlight the deliberate things I do to reconnect with my creative side and to just observe.
When I leave the house every day I am connected to everything and everyone through various devices, iWatch, iPhone, iPad, Microsoft Surface. Each of these tools is essential, yet some are duplicates, and I am ok with that. I once read that Steve Jobs designed the iPhone with minimalism in mind. The idea was to create a tool that could take the place of many. For the most part, the phone is a work of art, it can do so many things well, yet I find it lacking. The biggest complaint with the phone is that it does too many things. I will go into the details of why I have chosen to regress and take a step back in time to just do one thing at a time, why I still choose to go analog in a digital world.
In the picture, you will find 4 items: an orange fountain pen, a black notebook, a brown wallet, and a camera. Over the next few paragraphs, I will go into the details of each and how I use them to enhance my performance and find inspiration.
I will start with the black notebook. A bit of history with me and black notebooks, I have been writing in them since 1995. Back in college I would sit at coffee shops at The University of Louisiana at Lafayette and write while drinking espresso and smoking Camel lights. Those were the days, poetry poured from my pens as I wrote about everything from heartache to my dreams of growing up. There was always something primal about the written word with me, the act of writing was a release; it was thoughts expressed as words attempting to paint a picture of emotion. I wanted to be like Poe, a mysterious figure tormented by love and darkness that I could never break free from. Oh, those were the days, I soon realized that poets don’t make much money and that I better focus on getting out of school. The coolest thing about the black books was the joy I felt when I opened them back up. When I read some of my writings I am transported back in time, I can almost taste those Camel lights.
The brown wallet. This is my most recent purchase, it was made for me by a leather craftsman at the local farmers market. For starters this is not a minimalist wallet, it is quite large but technically fits in the back pocket of my pants. This wallet serves three main purposes, First, it holds my cards and money.The second thing my wallet does is it carries a notebook and pen. I have been carrying a pen and paper on my person since the early 2000 when I worked on oil rigs. The third thing about this wallet is the phrase I had etched on it, This too shall pass. The maker wrote to vs too, but I did not have the heart to have the maker redo the wallet. The phrase is to remind me that sometimes the wallet is full, and sometimes it is empty and to stick around a little longer, for, this too shall pass.
The orange fountain pen. I can still recall the first real fountain pen I purchased, it was back in 2010 and I was writing very important letters; Love letters to my wife. It was during this period that I wrote many letters, most to my wife and many to my mother. There is just something about holding a hand written letter and reading it. The letters I wrote were healing to me, they allowed me say things that were sometimes hard to speak. I learned long ago to express my feelings in words, my first therapist encouraged me to write at the age of 12, I was an angry little fucker back in those days. From that time I never stopped writing, I still write at least a page per day, and these days, all with fountain pens. There is something beautiful about these pens, they glide across the page and express emotion in a way that hacking away at a keyboard does not.
The Leica camera. To those camera enthusiasts reading, you know what this camera is. To everyone else, it is a very pricy tool that takes pictures. I got into digital photography back in 2001 with the purchase of the Cannon Powershot, since then I purchased Nikon and Cannon systems, but they never really felt right. I first touched a Leica in New York at the Leica SoHo store, it was the Leica M9 monochrome, and I fell in love. The price tag for the camera and lens back in 2014 was over $10,000, I know right? But, I was hooked, I wanted to own one. The more I looked into the brand, the more I fell in love with it. The camera forces me to be better, it has the potential to capture life so beautifully that I am mesmerized with some of the images that I capture. Granted, this is not “THE” Leica I wanted to get, but we have to start somewhere. Last summer I picked up a small job from one of my college professors, the proceeds of the job bought my camera. I use the camera every day, I use it to document my life and work, and I am seldom seen without the Leica draped across my body. In a typical week, I will shoot around 150-300 shots, not all are great, but each one is treasured. The camera does one thing really well and that is why I carry it.
It was a great Sunday for me at the coffee shop near my job site. I observed a lot of people doing a lot of things. I am sure I could have done everything I wrote about on my phone, I am sure I could have turned the whole experience into a task. But what fun would that be, I would not doodled a new concept nor would I have captured some cool black and white photo’s. In this digital connected world, it is a whole lot of fun to go backwards, even if for just a moment.
