Terrible, terrible things

Eury posted a picture of her wonderful Valentine's Day invitations. Pretty creative, ain't she? She mentioned not liking the assembly-line process of it, though. Yeah. Yuck.

But...

I've had a lot of brainless jobs. My most mindless was when I worked for the company that makes those bead and wire toys.
My job was painting the wires. If you're thinking that sounds like the most boring job in the universe, you're right! And I'd do it again if the wage were right.

At first assembly-style work is frantic and frightening. "Gotta get 15000 done before my shift ends. Oh no!"

After that it's cripplingly dull for a few days. That's when you want to quit.

But if you make it over the hump it's amazing. How the mind wanders when you're only using a pair of well-trained hands! It's almost like one of those sensory deprivation tanks. Some of my most creative and clear thoughts came to me when I was painting those dumb wires. You know how when you're drifting off to sleep and you get these great ideas or profound realizations, but then they *pop* like a bubble if you wake up too much? It's like that, except you're already awake and can hold onto the thoughts and write them down.

Painting wires, mowing lawns, stocking shelves... All of those dull, dull jobs paradoxically made my brain feel very alive.

Strange. The jobs I've had that called for the most creativity, like managing people or making crap sound good so I could sell it or making shit up as a "psychic," are the ones that drain that creativity out of me the most. I finish my work and I just want to sleep. But the brainless jobs, even the most physically demanding ones, only tire the body, not the mind. A week of that and I'm in shape again, and afterwards a quick shower after a shift picks me right up and I'm good for a night on the town.

Maybe it's just a case of "the grass is always greener," but I don't think I'd turn my nose up at a chance to paint wires or dig ditches for a living again. That's eight hours of creative juices going where I want them to go instead of into a job where someone else profits from my brain. I'd probably get some good stories out of a setup like that.

Hmmm...