What makes art and storytelling important? Why would people--and why should people--even consider supporting those who spend their time making things and telling tall tales?

These are questions people immediately stop asking when someone lightly critiques their favorite Blackpink song, Into the Spiderverse, The Lord of the Rings, Dark Souls II, Dr. Seuss book... you get the picture. Shockingly, it seems humans are capable of making things people enjoy.

I'm the Ooji, and the reason my creative work exists is because one question rings in my mind:

What song does your life sing in the ears of others?

Wow, what a romantic, idealistic, head-in-the-clouds thing to say. My bad. I fear the smooth jazz playing on my speakers is influencing me.

But the question still stands when phrased in other ways: 

• what am I doing with my life?
• this isn't the life I wanted
• be the change you want to see in the world
• that wasn't very cash-money of you

For some, they find peace in farming, others enjoy the bustle of the financial district, and still others wake up early to record the results of lab experiments running in some undisclosed facility (you didn't hear this from me).

Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.

It's an ancient proverb (Ephesians 4:28), but it checks out

For me, I find the honest work I wish to labor on the most is the work of telling stories well. For when a story is well told, people listen. People seek. People find. And people learn to understand one another.

That is what I find crazy about storytelling:

It is the art of understanding each other.

Thanks for reading! Next time I'll post something more down to earth. Had to hit you with the "10,000 mile high view" before "getting into the weeds", as some say