Painting My Cave

I want to find out more about the shift from hunter-gatherer to agrarian societies. Specifically, I want to compare their levels of productivity. That word, productivity, sounds a bit industrial and brings to mind a measurement of how many pounds of food each society would produce in a day. And though food production does interest me, with the issues of health that accompany it, I’m thinking more of artistic productivity. Like, who wrote more poems per day?

My stake in the question comes from my own experience. Whenever I have a chance to travel around and cut loose, my creative output drops to almost nothing. Instead, my greatest productivity usually comes when I’m in a comfortable routine. However, at the end of September I will fly to France, and I won’t return to the US until May. There’s a romantic idea of traveling to a foreign place and having a fling with the muse. But the last time I lived in a foreign country I spent more time playing sudoku than writing.

Is comfort the key? If so, what kind of comfort? Maybe it’s a comfortable sense of self, which could come out of a routine environment that reinforces who I am. When my surroundings always change, or seem too foreign, I could doubt what defines me. In that doubt, I may not be able to explore new ideas or reflect on experiences. Or maybe not. It could be physical comfort, specifically more time freed up from not needing to worry about where to get my next meal. Not worrying about figuring out my new surroundings.

Or maybe it isn’t comfort. Maybe I need those times of change and uncertainty to get the juices flowing. Then it isn’t until I get back into a steady routine that I have a chance to process everything. Flesh it out, articulate it. Maybe the past has answers.

-spk