Hi Readers,
It’s been another two weeks. They flew by! I was in Las Vegas for a week attending the Project trade show and looking for apparel for the shop. I found a few brands I’m pretty excited about - more to come soon! Then I got back to Portland and spent a weekend purging and cleaning my house. It felt great. THEN, last Monday I got sick. That did not feel great. Thankfully, I was able to rest and get some work done which made me happy. BaLaNcE, ya know?
I’m entering this week in a pretty hopeful mood. I’m feeling inspired and excited about things to come on personal, creative, and professional fronts. Some days or weeks I feel like I’m making actual progress, and I let myself be proud of that and look ahead instead of worrying. That feels huge!
What’s on my mind is something I saw on Instagram yesterday that sent me down a rabbit hole of research and thought. The post was making fun of city planners by showing the paths that humans naturally carve out, sometimes in opposition of what has been built/laid out. These are called Desire Paths. (I obviously have seen, and used this type of path before, I just didn’t know that’s what they were called!) Defined as “an unplanned small trail created as a consequence of mechanical erosion caused by human or animal traffic. The path usually represents the shortest or the most easily navigated route between an origin and destination.”
For whatever reason this concept just struck me and I found myself on the Desire Path wikipedia page and the Desire Path subreddit. (323k members?!) I think I just really love the concept of natural human behavior being at odds with things that humans create. What a fun little quirk.
Maybe its because zooming out on human behavior right now feels so violent, hopeless, cruel, and sad. I’ve had to zoom way WAY in to find autonomy and resilience and even a bit of humor.
To remind myself I don’t hate everyone, humanity in general, I’ll often think about certain human rituals through the eyes of an alien from another planet. What would aliens think about us going to concerts? Or collecting rocks? Or kissing each other? Putting the “normal” into an unfamiliar context always has a way of endearing human behavior to me. It makes me think “Aw, we are so weird and cute, I love us”. It helps me get through my days.
Back to desire paths - After getting past my initial fascination of the weird animal-like behavior that creates desire paths, I, of course, being me, started to philosophize the concept. I likened the concept to my current path in life. I’ve deviated from the paved way. Staying on the path built for me would have looked like getting another Trust and Safety job at another tech company. That path is maintained. Its where the city planners (capitalism?!) has expected me, or asked me to go. But I saw a dusty dirt trail paved by small business owners before me jutting off into the woods. I’ve taken it.
The other part of what makes a desire path a desire path is that it is often the most “efficient route to the destination”. That’s interesting to me because I feel that I’ve actually changed destinations. Or maybe realized I had been taking the wrong, paved path expecting it to still lead to the destination of a creative life.
This desire path that I’m on now, is taking me through the woods, not to a destination but to another path. The path of creative consistency. The path of curiosity. Maybe this one is cobblestone, or covered in sidewalk chalk, or a boardwalk of wooden planks. But I can’t find it without taking this small trodden bit of earth. I’m so grateful for the people that have done this before. Helping me to not feel alone, showing me the way.
May we all notice the desire paths in our life and have the courage to take them.
Connections
What I’ve connected with over the last two weeks and want to share:
Not sure how Madison Cunningham on a song always takes it to magical new heights - but here’s an example
I attended Joe Rudko’s reception at PDX Contemporary on Saturday. He is one of my favorite artists and a massive inspiration for my own collage work. This was my first time seeing his work in person!
I watched the whole season of Carol and the End of the World on Netflix while I was in Vegas. Its weird and beautiful and you should watch it.
I joined a book club that’s reading The Creative Act by Rick Rubin. Really excited to spend the next 11 weeks learning and discussing creativity with other creatives. If you want to read it too - its available in my shop :)
The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin
Thanks for fartin’ around with me, see you in two weeks!
You can also share excerpts of the While on Earth newsletter on social media, forward it to someone who might benefit, or text it to a friend. Thank you for reading.
Other ways to connect:
personal instagram: paging_misterherman
business instagram: letswhileonearth