bird by bird.

being a bit of a perfectionist i had a strange reaction when i read the following quote, randomly at work one day, in a women's college coalition publication:

'good failing' requires the strength to make use of a self-generated mess.

ok, says my brain, i'm intrigued.

as anne lamott explains in bird by bird, "perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor, the enemy of the people. it will keep you cramped and insane your whole life." she urges her writers to "go ahead and make big scrawls and mistakes. use up lots of paper. perfectionism is a mean, frozen form of idealism, whiles messes are the artist's true friend.
... we need to make messes in order to find out who we are and why we are here."

if you turned the camera on me at this point you'd see my mouth awkwardly hanging open, my eyes frozen on the paper, and a lightbulb going off above my head. I GET IT.

finally.

thank you WCC and ms. lamott.

flickr: hownowdesign