“My crackpot theory is that people are losing their skill to express themselves, and they’re, in a way, farming that task out. If they want to express themselves they buy a song or they buy a greeting card that’s already processed by someone who’s kept that skill. We can’t express our own feelings anymore so we have to hire someone to do that.” —Chuck Palahniuk
I saw this on Lou O’Bedlam’s Tumblr.
It rang true for me, though, especially because I struggle with expression. Not just emotions and not just my own. Trying to express myself and struggling to understand other’s attempts at self-expression is a major issue for me, mainly because the creative impulse has driven me and much of who I am since I can remember.
Only, I fell into this trap Palahniuk talks about. I’ve let the skill atrophy, lately, and I feel the need to exercise those creative muscles again.
Actually, there’s a lot of back story to that, especially this week, but I think that’ll go into my other blog, Diary of a Network Geek.
