Celebrating the Bumpy Ones!

One of my favourite comic strips is “Pearls before Swine”. I was thrilled when its author, Stephan Pastis,  gave me permission to post this strip on the blog.  For me it was so endearing and I wanted to stand up and shout, “ I understand.  I like the bumpy ones too!”  

In my life I moved around a fair bit and the things that I held on to may not have been valuable but they were special to me in some personal way.  Sometimes I had no better explanation about a specific item’s appeal except than, “It was the bumpy one.”  

What makes us hold onto certain items?  What makes the attachments?  Maybe nothing is really apart from connections to people or events, but what draws us to pick the bumpy one instead of looking for the technically superior piece?

When I was thinking about the appeal of imperfection (Really. I promise I was doing that.) I realized that this was in part my answer to the nightmare, “What if my work isn’t good enough?”.  

Pig showed me that I was asking the wrong question (yes the character’s name is pig).  Good enough doesn’t guarantee a connection.  What people are looking for is something that communicates to them and engages them in some way.

How do you make sure that happens? You don’t. You make sure that the things you make speak to you.  If it makes you feel or think or grabs your interest, you have a good chance of doing that with someone else. What do you like? What draws you? Don’t be afraid to collect, celebrate and make the bumpy ones. Enjoy!