Why being good at things isn't always the point in doing them. May 31, 2023 | [Read Online]( The marvelous squiggles of Vonnegut Why being good at things isn't always the point in doing them [Cole Schafer](
May 31, 2023 [fb]( [tw]( [in]( [email](mailto:?subject=Post%20from%20The%20Process.&body=The%20marvelous%20squiggles%20of%20Vonnegut%3A%20Why%20being%20good%20at%20things%20isn%27t%20always%20the%20point%20in%20doing%20them%0A%0Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.getthesticky.com%2Fp%2Fsquiggles) When Kurt Vonnegut was fifteen, he spent a month or so working on an archeological dig. One day over lunch, an archeologist was bombarding him with all the typical getting to know you questions⦠âWhat sports do you play?â Vonnegut told the archeologist that while he didnât play any sports he was in theater, choir, played violin, piano and used to take art classes. The archeologist was impressed. âWow. Thatâs amazing!â Perplexed by the praise, Vonnegut backpedaled. âOh no, but Iâm not any good at ANY of them.â Seeing the young Vonnegutâs wavering confidence, the archeologist spoke up. âI donât think being good at things is the point of doing them. I think youâve got all these wonderful experiences with different skills, and that all teaches you things and makes you an interesting person, no matter how well you do them.â Years later, reflecting on this conversation with the archeologist, Vonnegut would write the following⦠ââ¦I went from a failure, someone who hadnât been talented enough at anything to excel, to someone who did things because I enjoyed them. I had been raised in such an achievement-oriented environment, so inundated with the myth of talent, that I thought it was only worth doing things if you could âwinâ at them.â While Kurt Vonnegut would certainly go on to âwinâ as a novelist, it is in his artââa craft that he would often escape to when the writing became too difficult to pen downââthe we see the full impact of the archeologistâs advice. If there is anything that is certain about Vonnegutâs creativity outside the brilliance of his writing, is that he was a lifetime doodler. Vonnegutâs art boasts the same strange, satirical flair that made his writing so widely loved and admired. A quick Google search will present you with pages and pages festooned with bright colors and strange shapes and oddly angled silhouettes ranging from⦠A pair of big faces sporting thick, swollen lips, trapped inside geometric patterns⦠A woman, drawn from the back, with a behind as large as a starship sitting cross-legged on a yellow mat⦠A mustached doodle of Vonnegut himself with a nose two sizes too big, smoking a stubby cigarette, brooding⦠This was Vonnegutâs art, in all its glory. Vonnegutâs daughter, Nanette, told The Huffington Post that her father used to say he would have much rather been a visual artist than a writer. âPeople are so surprised to find out he wasnât happy in his studio⦠One thing he said in Anne Lamottâs book was that he felt every time he sat down to write, that he had no arms. He had no idea where to begin, and it was a real labor⦠He worked so hard to get it right. It was tiring. Doing artwork was less tiring...â Vonnegutâs passion for art allowed him to approach the page recharged, refreshed and with a renewed sense of vigor. And so today I will leave you with this⦠Choose the thing you want to âwinâ at. But then give yourself permission to do all the other shit because you want to, because you enjoy it, because it makes your life better, fuller and lighter. By [Cole Schafer](. P.S. If this newsletter made you weak in the knees, do me a huge favor and tell one person to [subscribe](. [tw]( [ig]( [in]( Update your email preferences or unsubscribe [here]( © The Process 228 Park Ave S, #29976, New York, New York 10003, United States [[beehiiv logo]Powered by beehiiv](