A Challenge For You

A few months ago, my friend Jaye Wells blogged about National Buy a Book Day (http://jayewells.com/2010/08/31/national-buy-a-book-day/) a day on which we could support authors by going to a book store and buying a book. In a fact of life about which I rarely thought prior to her post, authors don't make any money when people borrow books from the library or buy them second hand. That doesn't make either of those things bad (I frequent libraries and used book sales - I love them). But, you know, authors need to eat too, and National Buy a Book Day was designed to show them a little love.

Her post, and some comments and discussion that followed it, got me thinking. (I like thinking).

Authors are hardly the only creative people that are not richly rewarded for their work. I know a lot of people who have hobbies, or sidelines, or businesses, or business plans that involve the creation of something. Almost none are making a living at it. I know people who make jewelry, beer, cheese, scarves, dolls, photographs, music, paper, sculptures, incredibly cute crocheted animals, jelly, fruits and veggies, scones, paintings, stained glass windows, and yarn. And that's just a starter list, really.

Almost none of those people are well compensated - or compensated at all - for the time they spend.

I believe that humans create for the joy of it. I believe that the act of generating something new - and beautiful, or useful, or delicious - fills a need that most of us share. We do it because we love it. Because it is part of who we are.

But, let's be honest, even when we are fulfilling our need to create, it's also nice to get some recognition, some appreciation, and - sometimes - payment.

So I came up with this idea. I'm sending y'all on a quest.

Go out over the next few weeks and buy something that someone else has created. If your house is already full of stuff, don't limit it to a material object: buy a song, or a loaf of bread that you will consume. Or show your appreciation for someone's work by exchanging it with some of your own (thereby reducing your own pile of stuff: win-win).

I don't want to limit it by setting too many parameters - in large part because I want to see how creative everyone can get with this - but I'll toss out a few examples. You could:

Buy a turkey directly from the farmer who raised it;
Ask the person playing the pickle-barrel drums on the corner for a specific song and then put money in his money jar;
Buy a glass of lemonade from the kid selling it on the corner;
Hire someone who loves to cook make you a special meal;
Hire a string quartet to play at your holiday party;
Offer a child some money to create a piece of art for you (someone did this for me when I was a child - a gift for which I am still grateful);
Pay someone to teach you a creative skill;
Arrange for someone to write you a poem;
Hire someone to hand-make some of your holiday cards.

The two important things are that you seek out something that has been created by hand and that your economic transaction is with the person or persons who have worked to create the beer/poem/cheese/jelly/scarf/artwork. It is about both the creative act and the personal nature of the economic interaction.

And then come back and tell me about it.

I look forward to hearing your stories.