Once again, you have published an essay that is strikingly congruent and timely with my own considerations of late. I have been thinking about creativity in the context of building community (which is, in my view, the highest expression of human creativity) and how the survival and sacred dances converge in the experience of living in community.
I also dig the historical context you have given about work as a social phenomenon. The survival dance of communities living close to nature involves a set of moves (hunting, fishing, farming, building) that ultimately synchronize with the rites and rhythms of the sacred dance; art, music and the poetry of devotion spring from that space of bare, essential humanity, where the will to create is the place of communion with God.
Also, historically, it is anomalous for people to do just one 'thing' as their work; the space of collaborative, integrated life-affirming work in/for community (as a basic economic unit) favours the dilettantes, polymaths and autodidacts of this world, whereas the brand-persona ideal favoured by the algorithms (in a consumer-driven economy) means that a creator can only make one sort of thing in order to build an audience and thereby make money out of it.
In that sense, I think that the whole question of work and creativity comes down to valuing the survival moves (dishes, admin, childcare) as intrinsically sacred and aligned with a purpose greater than individual or capital gain. You get that in community-based projects: there is a chance to really appreciate the person who has chopped the wood or cooked the food for everybody, because those little efforts all help to weave the magic of togetherness and allow the space for the sacred dance to emerge collectively.
Absolutely love this, Nicola, particularly around community being the highest expression of creativity. I also thought the same in terms of the survival dance - there's a way to find the sacred in every moment, like Thich teaches, finding the cloud in the cuppa tea, else you're not sitting with the tea.
I think your perspective around collective contributions and wellbeing especially resonates in today's climate, because it could be easy for someone to hear "survival and sacred dance" as "work a 9-5 and develop a side hustle and keep cranking" which isn't the depth we are aspiring towards; that narrative is still divorced from the truth of interbeing.
Your comment about creators popularized by algorithms had me grinning. Absolute fuego. Just enormous gratitude. I look forward to reading more of your words on this subject.
Thank you! I have had an essay about living in community percolating on one of the dim stovetops at the back of my mind these last few months, alas, the energy spent on the 'living' part has overtaken the 'writing' part.
The single best indicator of a quality life, at least that's how I feel in terms of my digital usage. There's a direct correlation between the more engaged IRL I am and how much I use social media
Reading Rick Rubins book currently, quite the gem! Love the perspective on survival vs sacred dance, thanks for sharing. Seems like you have managed to merge the two 😊
"If we turn to our collective past to understand the origin of work in our lives and how it was never meant to be the primary lens through which we define ourselves, we begin to see the many ways in which we have de-evolved rather than evolved in our self-understanding." mmm. Thank you. Glad to be a new reader here.
Thanks so much, Anna. Just discovered your work too - like, instant fan of Unsupervised. Also, surfing. I'm bummed to be missing the swell in norcal right now
And Swift Deer’s idea of the “survival dance” followed by the “sacred dance” also reminds me of Ram Dass’ idea of “becoming somebody” and then “becoming nobody” (also title of a great documentary about him). It also evokes David Brooks’ book “The Second Mountain”. I think some of us (myself included) have tried to merge those dances & mountains: by trying to orient ourselves towards work that is both meaningful and can help us survive at the same time. A hard combo!
Ooohh great call(s), Ram Dass is one of my all-time fav teachers, have written about him quite a bit and love that documentary. Also, I haven't read The Second Mt, but I've watched Brooks speak about it several times and it deeply resonates. Had no idea he was such a soulful dude. Thanks for this
“Instead of enlightened transcendence, our millennial hustle culture has produced nothing but debt, bullshit jobs, and the ubiquitous risk of burnout.”: POWERFUL! And pretty much sums up the capitalistic problem 💥
There is something beautiful about more members of the younger millennial and gen-z generations shedding off the old late 20th century mindset of career = self, and coming to the realization that a job/career is simply a means to an end; an adjacent element to our daily lives, and not the defining element. Or as Deer poetically put it - one's survival dance.
A job is a "Do", and Do's must be done. But Do's should not be confused with the "Be", which are all the moments of expressed love, creativity, and joy that we are able to obtain because our Do's are done.
Once again, you have published an essay that is strikingly congruent and timely with my own considerations of late. I have been thinking about creativity in the context of building community (which is, in my view, the highest expression of human creativity) and how the survival and sacred dances converge in the experience of living in community.
I also dig the historical context you have given about work as a social phenomenon. The survival dance of communities living close to nature involves a set of moves (hunting, fishing, farming, building) that ultimately synchronize with the rites and rhythms of the sacred dance; art, music and the poetry of devotion spring from that space of bare, essential humanity, where the will to create is the place of communion with God.
Also, historically, it is anomalous for people to do just one 'thing' as their work; the space of collaborative, integrated life-affirming work in/for community (as a basic economic unit) favours the dilettantes, polymaths and autodidacts of this world, whereas the brand-persona ideal favoured by the algorithms (in a consumer-driven economy) means that a creator can only make one sort of thing in order to build an audience and thereby make money out of it.
In that sense, I think that the whole question of work and creativity comes down to valuing the survival moves (dishes, admin, childcare) as intrinsically sacred and aligned with a purpose greater than individual or capital gain. You get that in community-based projects: there is a chance to really appreciate the person who has chopped the wood or cooked the food for everybody, because those little efforts all help to weave the magic of togetherness and allow the space for the sacred dance to emerge collectively.
Thank you so much for this essay!!
Absolutely love this, Nicola, particularly around community being the highest expression of creativity. I also thought the same in terms of the survival dance - there's a way to find the sacred in every moment, like Thich teaches, finding the cloud in the cuppa tea, else you're not sitting with the tea.
I think your perspective around collective contributions and wellbeing especially resonates in today's climate, because it could be easy for someone to hear "survival and sacred dance" as "work a 9-5 and develop a side hustle and keep cranking" which isn't the depth we are aspiring towards; that narrative is still divorced from the truth of interbeing.
Your comment about creators popularized by algorithms had me grinning. Absolute fuego. Just enormous gratitude. I look forward to reading more of your words on this subject.
Thank you! I have had an essay about living in community percolating on one of the dim stovetops at the back of my mind these last few months, alas, the energy spent on the 'living' part has overtaken the 'writing' part.
The single best indicator of a quality life, at least that's how I feel in terms of my digital usage. There's a direct correlation between the more engaged IRL I am and how much I use social media
Reading Rick Rubins book currently, quite the gem! Love the perspective on survival vs sacred dance, thanks for sharing. Seems like you have managed to merge the two 😊
Omg I didn't know he had a book out, this looks epic. Thank you so much, Julia for the rec and this note
Yes! And he's been a stellar guest on a few podcasts recently too :)
"If we turn to our collective past to understand the origin of work in our lives and how it was never meant to be the primary lens through which we define ourselves, we begin to see the many ways in which we have de-evolved rather than evolved in our self-understanding." mmm. Thank you. Glad to be a new reader here.
Thanks so much, Anna. Just discovered your work too - like, instant fan of Unsupervised. Also, surfing. I'm bummed to be missing the swell in norcal right now
And Swift Deer’s idea of the “survival dance” followed by the “sacred dance” also reminds me of Ram Dass’ idea of “becoming somebody” and then “becoming nobody” (also title of a great documentary about him). It also evokes David Brooks’ book “The Second Mountain”. I think some of us (myself included) have tried to merge those dances & mountains: by trying to orient ourselves towards work that is both meaningful and can help us survive at the same time. A hard combo!
Ooohh great call(s), Ram Dass is one of my all-time fav teachers, have written about him quite a bit and love that documentary. Also, I haven't read The Second Mt, but I've watched Brooks speak about it several times and it deeply resonates. Had no idea he was such a soulful dude. Thanks for this
“Instead of enlightened transcendence, our millennial hustle culture has produced nothing but debt, bullshit jobs, and the ubiquitous risk of burnout.”: POWERFUL! And pretty much sums up the capitalistic problem 💥
There is something beautiful about more members of the younger millennial and gen-z generations shedding off the old late 20th century mindset of career = self, and coming to the realization that a job/career is simply a means to an end; an adjacent element to our daily lives, and not the defining element. Or as Deer poetically put it - one's survival dance.
A job is a "Do", and Do's must be done. But Do's should not be confused with the "Be", which are all the moments of expressed love, creativity, and joy that we are able to obtain because our Do's are done.
Absolutely love that, never heard it either - fitting Be-ing-ness for B :)