The tao of teenagers
Tao is the presence of a force of nature, something unstoppable and beyond your control. You know, like teenagers.
If you don’t have any, I have a couple I could loan you, although I must admit I’d want them back, especially if you feed them and do their laundry. I know a few people who might offer a few for sale, cheap, you know, the economy being what it is and all.
Last Friday night I had a house full of 16-year-old boys, all embroiled in an XBox contest. Food and mayhem ensued until they left in one fell swoop to go to the movies. They have a permeable energy, even when they’re quiet. Especially when they’re moving in a group. The energy radiates through the whispers and the beeping of cell phones.
On Saturday I chaffeured/escorted two 13 year-old-girls to the nearest mall. Now 13 isn’t 16 and they are much less of a force to be reckoned with, until, of course, they happened upon one of those cheapo jewelry/hat/chatchke store or fall into a hysterical fit of laughter while they trail behind me at Trader Joe’s or while they were running around on a Twilight scavenger hunt at our local Borders.
As a mom, the force that drives my kids, on any given day, is the force that moves along my days and weeks — it’s the force behind dinner and food shopping and even behind laundry and almost every activity. It’s the definite force behind short term and long term plans.
It’s all about them, pretty much always. And that’s how it should be right now. But wrapped up in all of those unstoppable forces of nature — is me.
The Tao of Teenagers is external and internal. It pulls me from the inside and it pushes me from behind. The force that drives me as a writer is completely different. I don’t feel a lot of outside pressure unless I’m under a specific deadline…all the pressure is internal and I can shut it off unlike the power of teens, which has no power switch other than full-throttle. I’m a multi-year Nanowrimo dropout, and I rarely follow my own schedules or to-do lists, yet everything gets done, eventually.
What is the force that drives you to write? Is it the force of a pile of bills? Is it a force of an impending deadline? Is it the force of a creepy voice inside your head? Is it unstoppable? And what drives you otherwise…what is your Tao…what’s out of your control? And do you manage it or let it stay out past midnight?
I’m a single mother of a littl girl
The energy, the Tao, that drives me is number one: my need to pay the bills and now it is something that has overwhelmed me, the desire to save enough to give myself the chance to have a better life.
The voice of guilt is the thing that has always kept me going and often doesn’t let me rest. I’m working on ignoring that voice as much as I can.
Very very nice to meet you, so to speak
I’ve always been deadline oriented. Nothing like looming one of those devils looming to set my bahonkus on fire. So, without one, I tend to dawdle and do “other stuff”…until I set a deadline for myself and tell other people to keep me accountable. Really, it helps.
Teen Tao. Got 3 of ‘em, so I know how much their energy and needs suck yours dry.
RIght now my motivating energy is the knowledge that I’ll never have this much free time again in my life. At least not until I’m 80. My life has presented me with a strange situation and I’ve vowed to make good use of my time. Even then, I’m not motivated every day, but it thinking of all the responsibilities I could have acts as a good kick in the pants.
Leaving here. My driving force is getting my daughter and husband out of this back-of-beyond nightmare so that we may raise chickens, ducks, goats and pigs. That and making lots and lots of money. Oh, and that one thing that makes me tingle all over *financial independence*. Whoosh! What a rush just to write those words. Oh yeah, fear is also an amazing motivator. I have a surplus of that stuff.
Well, for me, my writing time is smashed into moments when my Demon Baby is otherwise occupied. I have to race to my keyboard, instantly “in the zone” and write because it’s usually not that long before he wants something/is creating havoc and mayhem.
My motivations are paying bills, deadlines . . . and something internal that never seems to shut off . . call them the Voices. Call them whatever you want. But there’s a whole lot of Story inside busting to get out.
Ah, teenagers! I’ve got two of my own. Both are boys, aged 16 and 19, so I know I’ve got it a bit easier than my friends w/girls. (At least that’s what they tell me!) I am the oldest of four girls and no boys – I have no idea how my parents survived!
As far as what drives me to write, as crazy as it may sound, I think it’s just the pure enjoyment of it! It’s what I feel I should be doing, but not in a bad “should” kind of way. It feels good to get something down on paper (well, on the computer, but same idea) that you’re proud of. It’s also quite cathartic – getting something from within your soul, out. That is the nature and magic of being an artist – bringing your art from within to without.
Bills, mostly. I don’t have kids, just teach them, but… it’s terribly difficult to not put kids first, as in both first and only. It’s exhausting.
I think twenty years is a good time length; I don’t think I can do fifty years of it. That, also, motivates me to write.
I’m with Debbie on this one, pure enjoyment of it. Where that enjoyment stems from as I manipulate words and edit and revise and hit stumbling blocks, I don’t know, but it’s there. Creativity plays a part, and love of words/communicating. There’s a certain challenge, to myself, to succeed as well.