Dan Savage

Okay. I'm going to say one thing and then argue with myself on the other side. I sometimes feel like, yes, it does feel like artists have more dramatic highs and lows, whatever you call anxiety and depression. We also know more about artists. Like, In our particular culture, people who make movies and TV shows and books and all of these things are just more visible, discussed more.

Okay. I'm going to say one thing and then argue with myself on the other side. I sometimes feel like, yes, it does feel like artists have more dramatic highs and lows, whatever you call anxiety and depression. We also know more about artists. Like, In our particular culture, people who make movies and TV shows and books and all of these things are just more visible, discussed more.

They're the people we've decided should have spotlights on them, which I think is arbitrary and weird. Like I sometimes think, why don't teachers and doctors, why don't we have the magazines full of them? But okay, since we know more about them and since they reveal their insides as their profession, we see their insides, okay?

They're the people we've decided should have spotlights on them, which I think is arbitrary and weird. Like I sometimes think, why don't teachers and doctors, why don't we have the magazines full of them? But okay, since we know more about them and since they reveal their insides as their profession, we see their insides, okay?

It's possible that if you sit down and ask a hundred doctors and teachers to pour their insides out, we would see more anxiety, depression, complexity, but that's not their job. They have to actually do stuff. So they can't just walk around emotionally and spiritually bleeding like artists do on a regular basis. So there's that. I also think that there are people in cultures,

It's possible that if you sit down and ask a hundred doctors and teachers to pour their insides out, we would see more anxiety, depression, complexity, but that's not their job. They have to actually do stuff. So they can't just walk around emotionally and spiritually bleeding like artists do on a regular basis. So there's that. I also think that there are people in cultures,

since the beginning of time, who for whatever reason, nature, nurture, spiritual reasons, trauma, whatever, become visionaries for the group, for the culture, okay? And this is just, it's studyable. It's the medicine man. This is since the beginning of time. Every culture has people who their job is to be a little weird and, you know, stand on the bow of the Titanic.

since the beginning of time, who for whatever reason, nature, nurture, spiritual reasons, trauma, whatever, become visionaries for the group, for the culture, okay? And this is just, it's studyable. It's the medicine man. This is since the beginning of time. Every culture has people who their job is to be a little weird and, you know, stand on the bow of the Titanic.

And while everyone else is keeping things moving, say, I think I see an iceberg, iceberg, iceberg. And everybody else is like, all right, she's screaming about an iceberg. Do we think this one is real? You know, these are the prophets in the desert screaming to the people. Okay.

And while everyone else is keeping things moving, say, I think I see an iceberg, iceberg, iceberg. And everybody else is like, all right, she's screaming about an iceberg. Do we think this one is real? You know, these are the prophets in the desert screaming to the people. Okay.

The person who is that person, who we would call an artist, whether a highly sensitive person, whether they're in a family or in a culture, in a neighborhood, the reason they are that is because they have this weird internal vision of how things could be. All right, so they see what's on the outside of the world, what's visible, the order of things.

The person who is that person, who we would call an artist, whether a highly sensitive person, whether they're in a family or in a culture, in a neighborhood, the reason they are that is because they have this weird internal vision of how things could be. All right, so they see what's on the outside of the world, what's visible, the order of things.

But they have this internal vision of how it could be, how it should be, a more beautiful version of whatever they're looking at, their family, their marriage, their community, their world. They carry around with them this internal longing, this vision. There is a gap between

But they have this internal vision of how it could be, how it should be, a more beautiful version of whatever they're looking at, their family, their marriage, their community, their world. They carry around with them this internal longing, this vision. There is a gap between

between what they see every day outside of them and the vision, the internal vision, a huge gap between what is and what they know could be. And that gap is the anxiety and the depression. The stronger the internal vision, the more dramatic and hard the gap is between.

between what they see every day outside of them and the vision, the internal vision, a huge gap between what is and what they know could be. And that gap is the anxiety and the depression. The stronger the internal vision, the more dramatic and hard the gap is between.

Imagine if you were looking at a situation and every part of your being knew that person would hurt less, that community would be better off if everybody just... And you had this heaviness that was a knowing. The bigger the vision, the bigger the gap. I think that That is an oversimplified way of presenting it, but it's part of the beauty of being an artist.

Imagine if you were looking at a situation and every part of your being knew that person would hurt less, that community would be better off if everybody just... And you had this heaviness that was a knowing. The bigger the vision, the bigger the gap. I think that That is an oversimplified way of presenting it, but it's part of the beauty of being an artist.

And the burden of being an artist is carrying a vision that you can't necessarily get everybody on board with unless you struggle in the dark. to pull the vision out of your body and somehow put it into words that other people can see and act upon to bring your idea of heaven to earth. On earth as it is in heaven is how I think of artists.

And the burden of being an artist is carrying a vision that you can't necessarily get everybody on board with unless you struggle in the dark. to pull the vision out of your body and somehow put it into words that other people can see and act upon to bring your idea of heaven to earth. On earth as it is in heaven is how I think of artists.