The liberating art of
loving what you do
By Susan Zalkind
I
n 1925 the famous anthropolo-
gist Margaret Mead visited
Samoa with a cadre of support-
ive educators to investigate
the Samoan way of life with
the hope that their knowledge
might enrich our Western “civilized”
culture, as it was referred to then. She
believed that “human diversity is a
resource, not a handicap,” and “that
all human beings have the capacity to
learn from and teach each other.”
One notable moment happened
when Mead and her group tried to
explain what art was and who artists
were in our society. The Samoans
could not understand what was being
communicated to them. Finally, after
hours of attempting explanations
from different angles, the Samoan
chief pointed a finger of acknowl-
edgement into the air and said, “Oh,
you mean human being!” Not only
did ancient Samoan culture make no
distinction between an artist and a
human being, but they also believed
that our primary imperative as human
beings, our most essential quality and
purpose of expression, is as creators.
First and foremost, we are creators.
It was not far into my now 40-
year career as a professional Alabas-
ter-stone carving artist, that the bones
of the creative process revealed itself
to me. Since that dawning, I continue
to be shocked with the myths we are
taught about what it is to be an artist
and to create art in our culture. My
husband and I saw ourselves as myth
busters and did not allow people who
viewed and loved our work to use the
words, “art,” “talent,” or “creative,” or to
hold the idea that we were that and
they were not! Those concepts have
been so mythologized that we gener-
ally now think that they apply to only
a special anointed few. Not true. Un-
less you’re on life support, it is impos-
sible to be alive without creating! But
there is a trick and there is a secret to
unlocking the full expression of our
unique creative process that guaran-
tees to lead us into a life of peace and
joy for ourselves, and by extension
into the world.
Here’s the trick: You have to do
something you love. Whatever that is,
your love and passion will naturally
guide and carry you through every-
thing in your life. I promise.
There was a song written by Ollie
Jones and sung by Anna Maria Al-
berghetti in the hit Broadway musical
Carnival produced by David Merrick
in 1961: “Love Makes the World Go
Round.” I saw it on stage and have
LEFT: With its soft illumination, this handcarved, rare orange Alabaster Eternal Light
that hangs over the Ark of Sedona’s Synagogue, transports its congregation into the
realm of the sacred. Dimensions: approx. 15” high X 11” wide 8” deep.
sung it all these years since. That’s the
trick. Listen deeply for what you love,
find what you love, seek what you
love. So much of the time we discount
what we love because it’s right under
our noses, we take it for granted, we
don’t think it’s important enough. We
live in a sea of riches and think we are
poor. What you love is right in front
of you. Find it, do it. Waves of benefit
will emanate from your thoughts
and actions.
And now here’s secret: The cre-
ative process at its core is about mak-
ing decisions, which involves listening
to ourselves, learning from our deci-
sions—or not—and eventually learning
to listen to and trust ourselves. Every
moment of our lives we make myriad
decisions. I like this, I don’t like that
and want to change it. I’ll wear this or
that. I’ll go here or there. Over time we
listen and learn to trust ourselves. The
intimate core of the creative process
is about listening to and trusting
ourselves and engaging in this process
with whatever it is we love—basically
combining the trick with the secret!
When a person makes decisions
regarding a certain material or process
they’re called an artist. The material
or process could be paint, stone, food,
cloth, writing, dance, running a busi-
ness, mothering, fathering, account-
ing—whatever. The process could be a
devotion to science or to ideas.
Nelson Mandela was devoted to
the idea of equality and freedom for
all people. For his 26 years in prison
Mandela never gave up on his devo-
tion to that idea, and now we see the
result. Whatever our process or our
devotion, our accumulated decisions
as human beings make us the artists
of our lives.
The myth that some are and
IMAGINE l Spring 2017 31