Creative Rebellion Essays: Lucky You
“Good morning, you won the lottery.” This is what my wife and I jokingly say to each other every morning. It’s an acknowledgment of gratitude, of the unbelievable unlikeliness of being here, now, against astronomical odds.
The probability of you existing at all is 1 in 10^2,685,000 (that’s a ten followed by almost 2.7 million zeroes).
We’ve all won the lottery – we have life. We exist. We have consciousness.
So, whatever happens in your day, you get to experience it – the good, the bad, the mundane and the extraordinary. Lucky you.
From my perspective, consciousness is the thing that allows me to know, to experience truth, beauty and life. All, as far as I can tell, subjective experiences. For further reading on consciousness, I recommend the elegantly written “Conscious, A Brief Guide to the Fundamental Mystery of the Mind” by Annaka Harris.
So we are here and we have consciousness. Which means we can change our perspective in the moment on anything. This is the power of focusing one’s consciousness towards a vision. And by focus, I mean relaxing – not furrowing the brow and trying to do anything. I subscribe to the idea that focus and flow come not from exerting more effort but by being completely present in this moment, in the Now, without being distracted by wanting something you don’t currently have.
This is how the “ah-ha” vision appears. When you center and allow things to come to you, rather than you pursuing it, whatever it is for you.
Beyond my day job, my personal creative work has centered around impermanence. My artwork and my writing. Not as a dire existential reality (which it could easily be considered) but as a reminder that this moment, right now, is all reality is. As mentioned, the probability of existing at all is insanely unlikely, whereas the odds of dying are 1 in 1.
When I was a young man, I was often depressed about the apparent inherent lack of meaning to life. Science explains the mechanics of life but not the why. Religion purports to explain the why but doesn’t hold up to scrutiny as belief is intrinsically not open to analytical thinking. The understanding that nothing lasts seemed dark and meaningless. However, it occurred to me that any construct of purpose, meaning and value comes from consciousness. Without human consciousness there would be no art or music or philosophy. Without the human consciousness there would be no observer – rocks would be rocks, trees would be trees, water would be water.
I considered that perhaps consciousness was developed so that the universe could observe itself. In which case, we are an extension of the universe. As the late Carl Sagan famously stated:
“The cosmos is within us. We are made of star-stuff. We are a way for the universe to know itself.”
― Carl Sagan
When viewed this way, then whatever human consciousness is, it returns to the place it came from. We are a temporary construct, in physical and mental form, that eventually deconstructs back to its origin.
For me, the creative act is perhaps done in service of the bigger idea of allowing the universe to know itself a bit more through my offerings. The thing I made did not exist before I made it. Much like me, the creation is an assemblage of elements on canvas (art) or an extension of my mind (writing). The works have the very human touch of me in them. It contains traces of my consciousness. Of my life force. Something that I believe differentiates it from any AI derived works.
As you deal with the onslaught of emails, Slack messages, and Zoom calls throughout your day, take a breath to expand out from the business of the moment and realize how extraordinary it all is. Work (or its lack of) may be tough but you are privileged that you even get to wrestle with these and any issues because you won the lottery.
You are alive.
Lucky you.
John S. Couch
UPCOMING EVENT on APRIL 19TH: Please come join me in real life in conversation with Holly Gottlieb of Whole Collective as we discuss leadership, community and life in Venice, CA. Please RSVP to holly@wholecollective.net and she’ll send you the address. Should be a lot of fun and would be great to catch up in 3D space!
What I’m reading:
1000 Years Of Joys and Sorrows, a Memoir by Ai Weiwei. The extraordinary artist Ai Weiwei grew up in a politically charged period in Chinese history and he wrote this memoir for his son while incarcerated for 81 days in 2011.
What I’m watching:
Beef on Netflix. An extraordinary black comedy series starring Ali Wong and Steven Yuen. The premise is simple – a road rage incident leads to the entwining of the two leads (Wong and Yuen) which spins out of control. The storytelling and production are fantastic. Also, it’s nice to see a series which is almost entirely Asian.
What I’m listening to:
12 by Ryuichi Sakamoto. This incredible musician passed away on March 28th, 2023. He has been such an influence on me since I was a teenager. I obsessively listened to this album, his last, while I wrote a film screenplay and I’d like to believe his spirit informed the writing.
Memento Mori by Depeche Mode. This band continues to produce exciting and relevant music. This is the first album after the untimely passing of one of the founding members of the band, Andy Fletcher, in 2022.
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