Blog
Selling, creating
Today’s email included an “ad” from someone with whom I attended high school. For an online interview about his new book. He sent the email to the alumni list. Ads like that, from books being touted by authors to courses being offered by instructors to exhibitions by artists about to show up at the opening reception, arrive all the time. In your email, I’m sure, as well as mine.
Can’t say that I’m an exception to self-promotion, as I’ve sometimes advertised my performances and new books in the currently common manner. Not to mention that this very blog and website, in which my intentions are to give information about my work, to present ideas and experiences about various topics, from love to everyday life, and to enjoy a kind of conversation with people who respond to the posts, can all too easily be categorized as publicity in the name of self-representation–because commodification of people into image and product rings truer than generous intentions in a society overwhelmed by an orientation towards surface and celebrity rather than soul, imagination, and creativity. People selling themselves–it’s full of puffery and false promise.
So . . . I question the goodness of the intentions that I note in the previous paragraph and wonder if indeed ego is masterminding them. In that sentence, ego means the false self critiqued in various spiritual practices–the ego that clangs and clamors for attention, that aggresses on the planet and the heart, that leads people away from happiness. I understand the need to make a living, the desire for a satisfaction in one’s work that comes from people’s appreciation of it, and the healthy narcissism that is an element of self-confidence. The false ego overrides healthy narcissism and drives a person into unconscious self-absorption.
At any rate, the idea, feeling, and activity of selling myself have become especially distasteful. Creating myself, as usual, feels a lot lot better.
Sure, self-promotion may have a superficial feel to it. But, you are right, creating feels more fulfilling. Maybe promoting oneself resides in the realm of the material and creating exists in the realm of the spiritual.