Maybe not

There are times I wish I did creative things more openly, instead of just doing what I do as a hired gun.  For instance, there are times I wish I wrote novels, or performed music, or was some sort of great public thinker.  Something, somehow, where I created something and put it out for the public to enjoy -- and, not incidentally, collect a little money for it.

Then there are times I'm very glad I don't do that.  Why?  Because it's inevitable: be creative, and somebody will take what you do and use it in a way far removed from your intent.  Put something out there over which you've labored, something with deep personal significance, and chances are somebody will appropriate it for something that's far removed from what you want.  If you're a philosopher, people will appropriate your words in ways that would horrify you, or use whatever ambiguities they can find to make your words fit their intent. 

(Or if you've said something really witty or memorable, you can bet on it making its way into Bartlett's.  Then, from there, you'll find it being included in graduation speeches, Speech 101 speeches, political addresses, personal webpages, editorials...so on and so forth.  Every year when the new student government officers are installed, I start wondering to myself which awkwardly-inserted, overused quote from which overquoted historical personage will be cited in the new student body president's inaugural address.  Churchill?  JFK?  Yogi Berra?  It almost never fails.)

If you're a musician, you run the risk of someday finding a song that's deeply meaningful to you being used as the backing track to a nacho chip commercial.  (Especially if you didn't sew up control of the rights.  Lots of musicians have been stung by that one.)  Be a movie star, and 20 years after you're dead, your estate will sell the rights to your image to appear in a commercial for something. 

I put this stuff out here on this blog for fun.  Some of it may seem like good stuff, on occasion.  But let me assure you that the really primo stuff, I don't share on here.  That, I'm saving, and I'm very careful who I share it with.  Because I know what happens.  You put it out there, and you lose control over it.  I've seen it happen too many times.  I don't want it to happen to me.