The world is off balance. You can see it in the way the same old game is played again and again. It is not a clever game. It is an old game. The kind played by people who have very little imagination and a great deal of nerve.
They do not create. That is the trouble. So they borrow. They cling. They watch the creative people as a man watches a fire on a cold night. They want the heat, but they do not want to gather the wood.
They like to keep the creative person poor. They see most creative person in the world it clearly: the creator needs money to buy tools, materials, to build, to hire helpers. These people will even commit crimes and steal money. With money, they gain power. They want you to come to them, to depend on them. This has been going on since dirt was invented. They fear the creator—the one willing to take the long road and take his power back.
When they do not get their way, they start telling stories. Not the good kind. Not the kind with truth in it. The other kind. They say he's losing his mind. She's a bad mother. He's on drugs. They throw mud and wait for something to stick.
It is a poor method, but they use it often. A throw of mud is not a philosophy, but it keeps them busy.
They are very quick to accuse others of what they themselves are guilty of. This is one of their favorite sports. A thief points at a man's empty hands and calls him dishonest. A liar loves to talk about trust. A weak person always has the loudest opinion about strength.
Their real enemy is not the honest man. It is not the calm woman. It is the creative person. That is what they fear. Creative people do not need them. That is the whole trouble. A creator can build a world—make a song, story, film, business, painting, life. He makes something from nothing. That kind of person is dangerous to the dull.
The dull need a crowd. They always need their buddies. They move in little packs, like fish that have forgotten the ocean. Alone, they are not much. Together, they are still not much, but they feel better about it.
And when they lose their hold on the creative person, they get confused. They turn on one another, which is always amusing if you are not standing too close. A team built on envy is like a house made of wet cardboard. It looks fine until it rains.
These are the same people who like to say money cannot make you happy. A creative person might answer, "Speak for yourself." Money is not everything. That is true. But it helps when you are trying to build something, feed people, keep the lights on, and tell the truth without begging for permission.
The creative person sees the world differently. He sees what can be made. He sees what can be changed. He sees what might be beautiful if somebody would stop complaining long enough to build it. He brings fun, joy, love, risk, music, stories, and invention. He brings the thing that keeps life from becoming a long hallway with bad wallpaper.
There are good people who are not creative in the famous sense. Some of them work very well with creative people. They help. They steady things. They keep the machine from falling apart. They are worth keeping around. A man does not need every person in the room to be a poet. Some of them can simply hold the ladder.
But the others—the ones who cannot converse, cannot debate, cannot encourage, cannot build, cannot listen—those are the difficult ones. They tell you to slow down when you are finally moving. They call fear wisdom. They steal your ideas and then call themselves your mentor. That is one of the oldest jokes in the world. The joke is on the artist, but he is usually too busy working to laugh.
Creative people often dim their light. They do it because it hurts less. It is easier to fit in than to keep being hit. Sometimes they do it because they're tired of being the only ones holding the weight. That is human. They shrink a little. They smile at nonsense. They let fools think they have won. This works for a while. It is a bad bargain, but human beings make them every day.
Then the creative person starts again. He makes money. He makes art. He makes motion. He becomes useful again, which is often when the old crowd returns with their hands out and their faces full of pity. Suddenly they are not enemies. Suddenly they are misunderstood. Suddenly they are the victim. It is a remarkable transformation, and it happens with clockwork regularity.
Street signs, shouting, endless protests—they often mean nothing. A man holds a sign but has nothing to say. A woman shouts at traffic but is still lost. Ask what they're protesting? They scream for you to move. Modern courage: loud, confused, and blocking the road.
The day people stop playing along with this nonsense, things will improve. Not because the world will become perfect. It will not. But because the fraud will lose its oxygen. The liar needs attention. The weak need an audience. The thief needs someone else to be polite.
So the answer is not to hate everyone. That would be too simple, and simplicity is often another form of laziness. The answer is to respect real work, real creation, real courage, and real people. The answer is to stop rewarding the ones who live by noise.
Creative people do not ask for much. They ask to be left alone long enough to make something worth keeping. That is a modest request. It is also the one request the world has always had trouble granting.
But if enough people refuse the game, the game weakens. If enough people stop apologizing for their light, the dark has less room to work. And if enough people remember that creation is better than envy, then maybe the world will tilt back a little toward balance.
A little. Not enough to please everybody. That would be impossible. But enough to matter. And enough to change the next round for real. Create. Don't dim your light. The world needs your fire, not fear.
Thank you for reading. I hope this helps in some way in your life. May peace, joy, and love follow you all of your days.
Roy Dawson
Earth Angle Master, Magical Healer, Singer, Songwriter, Poet, Profit