“When at rest, I’m not at ease. To be at ease, I cannot rest.” Bruce Springsteen.
I guess it’s the fate of all artists. It can be a great gift or a ball and chain, this drive to be in creative motion always. We hear endless suggestions and pleas to breathe, do yoga, take a chill pill, for God’s sake, and just rest. These are attempts to quell what, on the surface, might look like stress or, at the least, a sort of non-stop frenzy we all feel to keep creating. Why don’t we just slow down a little, our friends, our spouses, our children ask us? They are very likely right. It’s probably quite good for our health, mentally and physically, to give it a break every now and then. But, they don’t understand how tall that order is for creators like us, when our happiest, most stress-free, most relaxing, even most euphoric moments are in the act of creating our art. For now, I’m with Bruce. I won’t be resting any time soon.
