The pursuit of stuff is a mindless activity. It's really not much of anything which is probably why I'm writing about it here. Doing things for no apparent reason, no meaning, or no thought pretty much means these things are pretty much reasonless, meaningless, or even thoughtless. Now there's a leap--the basic nature of the pursuit of stuff as reasonless, meaningless, and even thoughtless. This concept is kind of important when someone is trying to do meaningful, thoughtful things. If one is trying to be meaningful and thoughtful, then avoiding the automatic pursuit stuff might be of some interest then. You bet it is.
Lack of thought, lack of meaning, lack of reason are all contrary to being original. They are all contrary to inspiration. The pursuit of stuff is the opposite of originality and inspiration. Originality and inspiration are all components of creativity. When you're creative, you're being inspired and original. When you don't have originality or don't have inspiration, you aren't being creative.
There is no purpose for pursuing stuff than for stuff's own sake. The point about stuff is it's self-fulling. It's about more, and more is definitely about being more. Creativity, on the other hand, since it's about thought, reason, and meaning, is not self-fulling. Creativity, is not about more. You can't just pile creativity on top of creativity to have more creativity. You only have creativity when you're creative. And, being more creative is only being creative, not more... Okay, I lost you there for a minute but I'll get you back here in a second.
Let's get back to where we were. The pursuit of stuff is the opposite end of the thought/conscience spectrum from creativity. The pursuit of stuff is opposite to being creative. Being about more is the opposite to being original and inspired. I think you're following me if you get this last paragraph.
Let's talk about photography now. True enough, photographers worth their salt have one way or another gotten a rave review/comment on something they've done. While that something may be a total accident, it certainly feels good when the commentary is spoken. To me, that's something to pursue. That great judgement is something anyone would want more of, wouldn't they? You bet they would. After the great review, the pursuit begins. The quest for more starts. The pursuit of more begins. This pursuit becomes nothing more than collecting stuff like anything else. It becomes less about the process and being creative. It becomes all about collecting and getting more. So there's the rub, having more praise has all the trappings of being more. Pursuing more praise is just about getting more stuff which is to say it's at the opposite end of the spectrum from being inspired and creative.
Oh, Oh... pursuing success and praise is about stuff which isn't saying anything about being creative or inspired? That's exactly what I said. I'm choosing my words very carefully here because I'm not saying anything about being successful or being praised. I'm talking about pursuing success, pursuing praise, pursuing stuff. The pursuit of those is one thing. Being successful and being praised is another. We're talking two entirely different things here.
