Life is art. More specifically, life is creation. But creation is art, and art is creation. Mortal humanity must necessarily be innately tied to creation, as our life has to have come into being, necessitating creation. If a life well-lived is a life pursuing one’s purpose, then the life well-lived must be the life of creation: creating sculptures, companies, music, furniture, and new life. Creation is at the center of our being. It is through creation that one becomes larger than one’s self and pursues the calling of human life on Earth.

One’s creation inevitably surpasses one’s self. It is through the act of creation that humans can become greater than themselves; it is through the act of creation that humans can achieve the ubermensch or overman that Nietzsche implores humanity to strive toward in his Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Creation allows humans to become more like God, who, in every faith, is a creator force. To create is at the base of our existence; we are born out of creation and into creation. We are made from creators, a Creator, and are meant to continue to create. It is through this connection among creation, God, and humanity that humans see that which must be done: to create. It is the only way forward.

Life is wasted when it is spent solely serving or maintaining the creation of another instead of creating something new. This is why humans, potentially innately connected with the creative power beyond (or God) find indescribable pleasure in the creation of art. Art is inherently an act of creation and a way to echo the creative power from beyond into a form digestible for ourselves and our fellow humans. Art inevitably presses beyond the status quo: once something is created, the world is never the same.

So why not create? It is a comfortable numb to exist under the creation of another, to rest behind another’s risk that has achieved acceptance in the world. And creation constantly involves the risk of failure: technical failure when the creation does not function as it is meant to, external failure when the creation does not achieve acceptance or when others shame the finished creation, and internal failure when the creation is displeasing to one’s self. But the real thrill of life is creating: creating things, concepts, and ideas of one’s own and allowing those creations to grow and exist beyond one’s self.

Seeking excitement in life is seeking life. To fall to boredom out of fear of failure or fear or rejection is to throw life out entirely. If one takes this path of pernicious fear, Nietzsche’s caustic quote that “The best of all things is…not to be born, not to be, to be nothing” becomes too cogent. By not creating, one throws out life with suffering. To live is to strive and to suffer. To create is to beget new life. Suffering and creation must be linked, but it is the pursuit of this connection that brings true life to life. Just create.

-Charlie, October 2023