Synonyms: Innovation, originality, individuality, imagination, inspiration, vision.

Day 7 Theme: Creativity

Today we met a pair of amazing individuals, Andy Friedman, and his friend Lia Strasser. Andy talked a lot about being yourself. About how art isn't really good or bad as much as it's strong or weak - and strong art comes from being genuine. He kept bringing the conversation back to the fact that we shouldn't care what other's opinions are. That the artist is the only person who can declare themselves as an artist. Art should be first for yourself. It can give other's hope or feelings, it can bring change, but it should only be created for you. I agree with that in some ways. But also I think art can be created specifically for others. Some artists create work to make a change in the world, to get people to wake up and see something new. Changing the way someone thinks or feels can be the art itself. Andy is an illustrator for the New Yorker. We asked him about his work and how he can be himself if others put deadlines on him. He said that his illustrations are not his art, that's just his job that finances his real work. That was particularly interesting to me. Most everyone we've talked to has had so much passion in their job. They really love what they do and they claim finding a vocation that you were meant to do or care about doing is really important. It's about self fulfillment. But for Andy his job is not that thing. He's just aware that a solid job helps pay the bills. It's part of life. That was kind of refreshing for me to hear. I do really want to find something I'm crazy about and want to work at everyday. But even with the best job ever there's going to be days when you don't want to do it. You have to be diligent because it's practical. We all need money to survive on some level. Even if I don't find something to do that I love, I don't have to give up what I love to do because of it. I don't have to put my identity in my work.

Another thing Andy said that Lia mentioned he says a lot is "form follows function". He used this saying in many different ways, but primarily how I interpret it is that art serves a function. Creativity is an outlet, a way of expressing, primarily for an individual's self. The form of the art doesn't matter as much as it's function. Who cares what it looks like if it's doing what you want? If you call it art then it's art.

After talking with Andy and Lia, I went with Kolby and Jess to a taping of The Jimmy Fallon show. It was kind of weird being an audience at a taping. They have you laugh loudly and applaud when they need you to. At one point when Jimmy came out to do his monologue he stopped after a joke and said "I don't get it. Let's cut that one." And then we restarted at the end of the last joke. So it is in some ways a facade. A lot of New York is the glitz and glam on the outside and the dust and dirt on the inside. Things on T.V. that we watch are meant to entertain, they are created to please, but life isn't really like the shows and movies. I think that I wasn't too surprised by the show taping. It is kind of what I expected, but Kolby and Jess seemed a little more shocked. It lead to conversations about should we rather be in the know? Like the matrix would you take the red pill or the blue pill? I think it's always better to be awake, to know what's going on behind the scenes. Who needs surface level entertainment if it's fake? It reminds me of Caesar Flickerman in the Huger Games.

I think the show taping really fell in line with what Andy was saying earlier in the day. Art is better if it's genuine. Art is stronger if it's real.

At the end of the night we all went to a Jazz performance at the Village Vanguard. I'm glad we went to the Jazz performance after seeing the movie La La Land. In the movie the main male lead talks about how jazz is kind of like a fight between the musicians on stage. It has tension. There's constantly a battle for the solo position and then they all fall back together. I don't know how accurate that is, but I could hear it in the music. There was a bassist, pianist, and drummer. They were absolutely incredible. The music reminded me of the way I think about dances. There's moments where one person has a solo and everyone else keeps the beat, or there's a duet and one person keeps the beat, which leads into moments of unison, or moments of everyone doing their own thing. It's so engaging, but it's all auditory instead of visual. I realized after a while that I don't need to even try to see them playing, because all though it's amazing to watch how fast they play, it's supposed to be about the sound. People who are creative with music have such an incredible skill that I could never dream of taping into.

Back to earlier in the day. After listening to Andy's thoughts on creativity and meeting up with Lia we headed to the park and ended up talking about a lot of different deep topics. I'm not sure if I can even begin to process everything. I did try to take a few notes on what was said so some of this might just be discombobulated fragments, or I'll try to really work it out here we go:

• Andy seems very set on the fact that art is only for yourself and other's opinions don't matter, but he also has a lot of success with his illustrations at least. We ended up talking about humility when having such praise. How to stay humble? He said that arrogance implies a certain satisfaction with where you are. Humility is important. I think that implies that we need to constantly be changing. If we become stagnant in life then we probably have some sort of sense that we don't need to improve. Life is kind of a constant improvement. You can't just stop growing unless you stop living. Or unless you go backwards in life. But once you've experienced something and learned from mistakes then you should at least try to move forward and make changes. If you're not humble then you are comparing and believe you're better than others. Really you should just grow to be stronger. We can all be stronger. That takes no comparison. Only self evaluation and attempt at change from that.

• Someone pays the price for the vices of geniuses. For example, if you have a family and kids to take care of, but you're also constantly at work inventing new technology then it's hard to do both. If you put work before family then your family might pay the price for whatever you're inventing. This is just like how when talking about fashion we said that someone pays the cost for cheap clothing. Someone pays the price for cheap food. In some ways this is how Jesus paid the price for us. Our sins cost something. Evil takes over something good. And Jesus covered that cost that we wouldn't be able to.

• God is love. The whole purpose of the world is love. To learn how to give and receive love, that makes us become the best versions of ourselves. Like the sermon we watched the other morning. Beloved. You are beloved. That's where our identity should come from. Andy believes love is god. It's a similar idea. I think it's the backwards idea. Sometimes what's closest to the truth is the most far from it. If we make love a God then what happens when we don't get it? This is something that I really struggle with. Throughout this course we talk a lot about love. In my customer service class that was the main point. People want to be loved. To be known and loved. What happens if I never find that great love? That's why we can't keep searching to find where our heart takes over for our head. We have to instead find where we become fully aware of God's love. He loves us for all that we are. He doesn't leave us. It's that love that I want to embrace. But I'm still figuring out how.

• Lia talked about how love is the big unifier. Negative things are out of fear, greed and hoarding. Love is abundant.

• I think all the people we talk to have figured it out and are firm in their thoughts. But they're all different. And we can look at the similarities, we can analyze the meaning of life by gathering the best from the best people. But I think you can live for many different reasons, and there might not be one main thread that's the same. All these people are happy with their meaning, but they're not following the same meaning. That's okay. We're going to figure it out one day too, and it's not going to be the same. One thing they all have in common is they weren't where they are today when they were our age. They didn't have it figured out in their 20s. So that gives us all hope. Maybe all that you need to give life meaning is time, and the wisdom gleaned that comes with it.

• Is morality an innate idea of evil and good? Do we know right from wrong at birth at all? Or are they 100% taught to us?

• Thoughts from Andy: Art can be a metaphor it makes the connections. It gives people permission to think in a new way. Perfectionism can be imprisonment. Wisdom leads to internal youth. Comfort in seclusion and hiding really is just fear.

• Thought about the meaning of life from Lia: It's all about gratitude, loving life. It's simple. We don't know what's going to happen in the next 5 minutes. Death guides the meaning of life, otherwise we don't even have to think about these things.

(Pictured above is Andy and Lia and all of us looking at his artwork)