MY TWO OUT OF THREE THEORY

The Agent M Theory states that at any given time, a human being can only have TWO out of the following three virtues:

1) Time.
2) Money.
3) Creativity.

Those that have all three are the people we call SUCCESSES or CELEBRITIES or basically the People We Wish We Could Be Like, Dammit.

But those people are rare, given the population. No, most of us must slog about under the constraints of my Two Out of Three theory.

Today, I have Time and Money but no creativity. In fact, was only through the merest lamentation of circumstances to myself that I was even able to focus enough brain-juice to write this blog entry.

My general state of affairs, and the general default for every Canadian artist of any stripe, is having Time and Creativity but no Money. And this is lamentable because it takes money to make that Time and Creativity into Something Worthwhile.

When I was a teen and my group of friends were all gung-ho on making our own comic book, we had all the time in the world and the zany caffeinated creativity we could handle. But, of course, to actually MAKE a comic book takes money, which we did not have.

At this point you could say: "Yeah, but Agent M, there are ways to GET money. Get out there and find them." Yup. And then I would lose the commodity of TIME. And, as with any small endeavor you want to grow, you need to spend TIME and MONEY to get it off the ground-- at which point, you have precious little energy left for your CREATIVITY.

I find that, when I'm on vacation, I have creativity and money-- but no time to actually do anything about it, because I'm on vacation away from my computer and other resources. In effect, you might say I'm BANKING creativity-- as though it were produced by a gland which has a finite daily supply, and being away from my normal outlet causes the creativity fluids to back up. Similar to blueballs, only in this case, I guess we'd call it blueBRAIN.

The only way to combat the Two Out of Three rule seems to be either experience. (I'm not throwing in the astronomical Grand Conjunction of the Planets, since that's pretty rare.) With enough missed opportunites under your belt, you can-- if you're serious about it-- begin to create situations where, tenuously at first, you can maintain a modicum of all three virtues at the same time.

And let me tell you, that's a heady brew. It's what George Lucas must have felt when he did Episode I and II. (I never said that all three virtues produced GOOD things. Just that things can be DONE unhindered with them.) Imagine the ability to have an idea, see what you want to do with it, and run with it-- with no fetters.

It's what every creative person strives for; that harmony, that balance, that ability to PRODUCE. To create, and bring forth, the fruit of their imagination.

So: Given the Two Out of Three Theory, I posit that the only sure way to combat this debilitation to creation is to be experienced about it. Therefore, I suggest all creative people hurl themselves against wall after wall, never ceasing, until the damn thing breaks. Until you make it through to the other side. And once you're there, never look back.

Because that...that will be a fine day indeed.

Posted by Agent M at November 05, 2003 03:32 PM