My friend Wes, who is making
a movie on scrapbooking, has an interesting rant on his blog about embracing
your inner nerd.
Wes, as you can see by this
photo, isn't your average scrapper and when he shows up at crop events and
conventions he tends to stick out in the crowd. But he's noticed that "middle
American family types who, despite my alarming difference in attitude and
appearance, have welcomed me with open arms and are bending over backwards to
embrace a different culture and broaden their perspective..." while the
counter-culture types turn up their pierced noses and say "that's uncool."
Wes knows he's making a big, broad generalization here, but bottom line he has a
point when he says:
"I'm switching over to
the other side and saying dammit, I'm a scrapbooker because it's not cool! It's
nerdy but it's full of creative, funny and completely transparent people who
are expressing themselves and their stories on their own terms with their own
voices. That's pretty damn punk to me."
Punk indeed – because punk
was all about do-it-yourself. Want to make music but can't play a note? No
problem, pick up an instrument and crank up the amps. No magazines out there
covering the stuff you want to read? Publish your own. No one making the kind
of clothes you want to wear? Customize your vintage finds.
Wes' thoughts also reminded
me of a great "Manifesto for
Growth" I have bookmarked but haven't read lately -- #14 of the manifesto reads " Don’t
be cool. Cool is conservative fear dressed in black. Free yourself from limits
of this sort."
There's plenty of other scrapbooking (and life) inspiration
in the manifesto too:
3. "Process is more important than outcome. When the
outcome drives the process we will only ever go to where we've already been. If
process drives outcome we may not know where we’re going, but we will know we
want to be there."
4. "Love your
experiments (as you would an ugly child). Joy is the engine of growth. Exploit
the liberty in casting your work as beautiful experiments, iterations,
attempts, trials, and errors. Take the long view and allow yourself the fun of
failure every day."
5. "Go deep. The deeper you go the more likely you will
discover something of value."
Comments