My sister said many years ago, “Why would you break up with one partner just to find a whole host of new problems with another?” Then we both looked at each other and said, “Exactly.”
New problems are so much better than old ones. New problems are more work but they are more exciting, more alive, more intriguing. Our brains wake up and say, “Wow, what to do about this one?”
We need our patterns to make progress in a given direction. Walking is very repetitive. We have to do the same motion over and over again to get anywhere. But then we get to where we are trying to go and it usually isn’t quite what we expected. Usually, it's a bit of a disappointment in one way or another. Since we have been walking in that direction for such a long time, we may forget that we have options and can try a different direction to find new problems to work on.
I am doing this in my art practice. I am aiming toward a new city and a new creative culture. I have been committed to San Francisco since I arrived in 1997. I have toured nationally and internationally but I have been married to San Francisco as my home base and as the cultural environment that birthed the vision of my work as the combustion point between art, science, and technology. Now I am curious about LA and its creative culture. I am interested in art with commercial potential and broader audience appeal. Art thrives where there are resources. This isn’t surprising. Gardens grow best with an excess of water, sun, and rich soil. Art is a living thing.
I don’t know how any of these opportunities will arise. I don’t know how I will get anywhere. But opening my mind in that direction, noticing the attraction, means that I will notice opportunities and invest more of my precious time and energy to those opportunities when they arise. The rest is a mystery unfolding.
We are fed narratives of utopia - the promised land where all of our problems disappear and everything is better. In some ways these are true. I have reached the promised land in my home. I LOVE my home life. Every morning I am grateful. And it contains a steady stream of problems to be solved.
What problems await if I succeed in producing creative content in LA? What new sexy problems will I get dirty with there?
Psychedelics have been shown to increase conviction and decrease fear of risk. These are two qualities necessary for changing your problems. Let's locate some new problems for you.