The Maintenance Gene

There is nothing that I like better; nothing that’s more exciting to me than the act of creation; the artistry of bringing forth something that wasn’t necessarily there before. And it really doesn’t matter if I’m doing it or if I’m just watching someone else (well, okay, it is more fun if I’m the one doing the creating). This can be something as simple as cooking a meal or watching a woman applying makeup to watching the construction of a home or writing a computer program (which incidentally is one of the things that I do for a living). You’re only limited by your imagination.

Unfortunately, one of the things that I don’t find very exciting is the act of maintaining my (or other peoples) creations. I, of course, understand the necessity; otherwise things would basically fall apart -- literally and figuratively.

As a minor example of my aptitude (or lack thereof) in this arena, I offer up as evidence my yard about 6 months after I bought my house:

You should have seen it; grasses up to your knees, amber waves sweeping back and forth in the afternoon breezes (actually it was really quite pretty). Unfortunately, there were rumors of small children being lost for hours if they accidentally ventured into the dark, forbidding forest that was my front yard. I think the neighbors were even complaining that their property values were going down for every week that the grasses went uncut. But when my friends starting saying things like, “You know this reminds me of my pa’s corn fields back in Iowa” or “I could swear I saw a pair of eyes staring back at me when I looked into that prairie behind your house”, I got the message ... I hired a guy to come and mow the lawn every week. It is well worth the money just so I don’t have to remember to do it. And consequently, property values went up all over the Bay Area after my gardener started. Coincidence? I wonder?

Anyway, you can probably see my dilemma. I love the creative part but hate the “taking care of” part. What I need is a vocation where I can create something, send it “away”, and not worry about it anymore. (By the way, if you’re wondering, I don’t think this would apply to something like, say, a child … I do own a cat after all, who is quite happy as far as I can tell. It can’t be that much different … right??) Well, you might say “that sounds like an artist or an author to me”, and I heartily agree. However, it’s not something you can just change jobs and go do, all the while paying the mortgage, credit cards, various loans and all of the other products of modern consumption that we all work so hard to acquire. So lacking any artistic talent (or a least the kind that people wish to look at – and pay for), I write when I get the time, and someday I’ll finish the book. Then, of course, I’ll have to figure out what to do with it, and do this in such a way as is agreeable to my lack of the “maintenance gene”.