To be liked or disliked - a metrical field in which nothing grows

Analytics are a tricky thing. They tempt you to believe that your work - whether writing, comedic videos, visual art... - has a quantifiable value, measured in "views" or "likes and dislikes" or "follows." The iterations of these measurements are endless, and all egocentric.

I derive the most joy from art (of any kind) when I put it out into the world for the sheer joy of having created something, and the desire for others to participate in that joy. If people don't find joy in what I've made, then the creation simply wasn't for them; and, their disinterest in my creation does not diminish its intrinsic value.

It's easy for me to say, now, that if people had never posthumously discovered the works of Van Gogh, it would not have made his irrepressible gift less worthwhile.

I could not have said that to the man's face when he lived. His experience of life and art was sad, raw, and real.

I suppose I'm trying to express that an experience can be real AND untrue at the same time...not unlike an impressionistic painting, or a great work of fiction.

There are metrics for value and goodness that we, in limited humanity, will never get to see nor be able to accurately describe.

What is True cannot be touched by the withering fingers of opinion, repulsion, or even attraction. Truth does not need buttressing.

Truth doesn't need us, but we need it. This is (obviously) not compatible with an egocentric view of value, which is why it is a sorrowful labor to look for affirmation in analytics.

I am ever striving to find joyful labor in joyful fields. I hope to find us there together, dear Reader, no matter how long it takes for us to get there.