When we can do whatever we want, we over often find ourselves overwhelmed. We turn to other people to tell us what to do, what to say, and how to act. In the end, we all want someone to tell us what to do.
We come together as a society and agree on rules and perimeters for how things should be said and done. We define freedom based on the rules set by the society in which we live. We talk about freedom, but when we’re confronted with it, pure and unvarnished, we freeze. As Jack Nicholson says in Easy Rider, “talkin’ about it and bein’ it, that’s two different things.”
This is why the blank page is so terrifying. When we sit down to write/draw/create, we’re confronted with every possibility at once. We can do anything. And it’s much easier to do nothing than it is to do anything.
So we make excuses. We cry “writer’s block” and shake our fists and pound our chests. We watch TV. We scroll through Twitter. We argue with strangers on Facebook. We do anything and everything to avoid creating, opting instead for doing those things we “should” be doing.
The simplest fix when confronted with freedom: embrace it. Leap into the void. Put your pen to the page and get to work.
joshua chamberlain 