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My collaborators and I have had a great time over the past few months with Make & Meaning. Unfortunately (or fortunately, as the case may be), great projects are richly abundant these days. And it turns out that we’re all just too busy with other work to give Make & Meaning the time it needs. So we’ve decided to take the site down.
My heartfelt thanks to everyone who read and commented over there. Your conversations were my favorite part of the whole project.
We’ll all be re-posting our Make & Meaning writing to our own blogs over time. You can visit those blogs here:
…And below is one of my posts. I’ll be re-posting one per week here.
You may have seen this TED talk, in which Jamie Oliver presents his dreams of using his skill as a chef to combat the root causes of obesity in England and the U.S. If you haven’t, go ahead and watch. I’ll wait. (Fair warning: a there’s a bit of non-work-safe language.)
Here’s what excites me about this talk: Jaime Oliver has a creative skill (cooking). Many of us remember him from his earlier-career TV show and cookbooks, where he grinned impishly at us from behind the name The Naked Chef. But the guy in this TED talk? He’s someone else entirely.
Jaime Oliver could have been content to find someone to pay him to cook (or write cookbooks, or appear on TV). In other words, he could have simply sought a paycheck for the act of creating.
But instead, he’s choosing to look at his particular talent and think about how it could benefit the world. Instead of seeking only the paycheck, he’s seeking to make a difference.
Image by Steve Wampler, via Flickr
I talk to creative people all the time who dream of making their living through their skills. I don’t have one argument against this dream, but I’ll tell you this: even the most compelling hobby, when it becomes your paycheck, can start to look an awful lot like work. And what you create can start to look an awful lot like whoever paid you.
But what if you had a sense of mission about your creative work? Can you look at your talents and see how they might contribute to a better world?
There’s no reason you have to have a mission as far-reaching as Jaime Oliver’s, of course. Maybe you’re a knitter, and your mission is to comfort people in need with your work. You might make a few warm hats a month for charity. Or maybe you’re a painter, and you believe in the value of arts education, so you volunteer to teach art at a local elementary school.
Image by mr • p, via Flickr
The point I’m trying to make here is that, if you can rise up to a 30,000-foot view of what you make and why you make it, there’s a whole lot of exciting creative possibility there. The more you can connect your creative work to a sense of mission, the more projects you’ll find to do, and the more people you’ll find to collaborate with, and the more innovating you’ll get done.
And best of all, when you create with an eye to making the world a little better, your work stops existing in a vacuum. Suddenly, there are actual human beings who could directly benefit, and in thinking about their needs, you begin to arrive at creative ideas you might never have found without their influence. I think that when creative work is done as an act of service (or, if you will, love), that work takes on so much more complexity, relevance, and significance.
Image by Marcin Wichary, via Flickr
Seeking a paycheck for creating? Well, that does get you a paycheck. I’m a fan of paychecks, but I’m much more enlivened by the feeling that I’m participating in something bigger than myself – and something that just might matter deeply to others. In fact, I believe that if we approach our work with this sense of mission, then the work itself will attract more opportunities for payment.
It’s a tricky balance, of course. We can’t quit paying rent in order to save the world. But I think that, when we’re contemplating creative career paths, we’d do well to consider how our talents can benefit people beyond our landlords.
What do you think? What’s your mission?
Oh my! I'm sad! I understand of course, but I just loved M&M so, so much! I'm glad to know the posts will still be around, because I go back to them again and again. It seems like I can reread one, and then the comments, and find something new that I didn't see before. (even if it was there.) Thank you so much to all of you for keeping it going as long as you did. I often pointed people looking for resources in M&M's direction and it was a very valuable community resource. It will live on in my crafty heart. xoxoxo
Aw, thank you, Kari. It was a hard decision, but ultimately it's the best option. I'm so glad you enjoyed the site. We were blessed with an extremely talented group of writers.
Thanks for sharing Jamie Oliver's presentation. His passion for his mission is amazing, and he deserves to have people listen and to act to make good food available to all. I hope they do.
My own mission? I really haven't thought that one through enough to share. My passion is textiles and a love of creating. When I taught full time I shared this passion with my classes. Now, I need to rethink how I can share this passion with others to enliven their lives.
Boo. But understandable. Sorry I don't have anything more erudite to say. :)
Heh! No worries – you've summed up my feelings exactly! :-)
I'm just wondering why you chose to take the site down instead of archiving it – doesn't that mean that all that valuable comment conversation on the old posts has now been lost? That seems like a shame :(
Agreed, June. All I can say is that I learned a valuable lesson with this project: don't invest in a self-hosted blog until you're sure the project can continue long-term. The fact of the matter is, I'm not able to continue paying for hosting, and the work to transfer everything to a free site somewhere is just more than any of us has time for.
I'm sad to lose the comment discussion as well. I just hope new discussion will sprout on our individual blogs as the posts are re-posted.
I love Jamie Oliver, and have admired him greatly since he started his Fifteen project. Every year he takes on fifteen disadvantaged youths – unemployed, homeless, recovering addicts – and trains them up, puts them to work in a restaurant with his name on it. While the fifteen are selected form a number of applicants, there's no guarantee that they're all going to stick it out, and it's all out of his own pocket. The story of the first 'fifteen' was televised and it was really compelling viewing. Jamie. What a guy.
I so agree – loved his Food Revolution series here in the US, too.
I am sad to hear Make and Meaning is ending. I enjoyed reading the posts.
Yes, definitely great writers and wonderful human beings! I, too, am sad to see it end, but totally understand the time and money crunch. It was good while it lasted and we all learned from the experience. Thank you for your effort to spread such crafty awesomeness!
Diane,
I love this post! I'm not only an artist and photographer, but I have a graduate degree in social work, and combining the two worlds has a been a mission of mine for a long time. Even a city like Portland has social ills — though you'd never know it from reading any sort of media. One thing that I would like to see more of is artists contributing to their community directly — inspiring another generation of artists who may be different with regards to race/ethnicity or socio-economic status. Here's a project I coordinated earlier in the year — amazing local artists apak did a painting for the North Portland Health Clinic, and we celebrated with a party:
http://bit.ly/dn4AtY
Thanks for posting this!
I'm bummed that Make and Meaning is over but really happy that the informative and helpful posts will live on in the writer's blogs. I can't even imagine how much work it was with so many people involved. Kudos to everyone for all the time and energy that must have gone into Make and Meaning. I will remember it fondly!
Great post! I've been struggling with my regular job – and it's my own business! Adding more Mission to it would help I'm sure. Thank you for your efforts, blogs, podcasts and so on!
Aw, thank you so much, Rachel!
What a lovely project! I so agree with you – artists can do so much for their local communities,
I am SO sorry that it is gone. I wish I could go refer to it again and again.
I have ended my blog, and it's always a sad thing. I know there is only so much time…
Thanks for re-posting your articles for me.
xo
C
Great post! I've been thinking about how to make a mission with my creative loves…knitting, sewing, gardening. It seems all I ever get around to doing are the never-ending baby shower gifts… but that's something.