I’m taking an “elementary“ computer course for my degree requirement and found out that the syllabus will concentrate on web design and HTML. Pretty good timing, huh?

I could do this student thing forever. It amazes me that there are actually people out there who are not the least bit curious about finding out new stuff–who in fact, are afraid to learn anything new; who’d rather sit in front of the television all day and let it do the thinking and adventuring for them, because it would be too threatening to attempt anything else.

In Orwell’s 1984 they broke Winston Smith by threatening him with the one thing in the world he was most afraid of–rats. The way to break me would be to sit me in a room with nothing but a toilet, a bed, and a television set without an “off“ button. No other humans, no books, no writing implements, no music, no computer, no web access…. just the unyielding gaze of the glass teat, day after day. After a week of this I’d be ready to stick my head in the toilet and drown myself. And yet, there are people out there who voluntarily live like that, with the one difference being that they also have access to snacks.

Of course, if you have a brain-numbing, soul-destroying McJob, it may seem that parking your behind in front of the tube is the only thing you have the energy to do after eight hours behind a retail counter or in a cubicle. But even so, there are others out there who manage to find room in their lives for the creative impulse; maybe not to the extent they would like, but they try regardless–even if it means losing sleep to make the time, or going without food to buy the art supplies or a musical instrument they need to make their impulse real. I love to hear stories like that, because it proves to me that art and creativity are not luxuries for the idle, wealthy or lucky, but a necessity, like food or water.

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