Hi, folks, I'm exhausted this week. It's hard work to live a creative life. There is never enough time. I have discussions about cloning myself on a weekly basis. Anywho, I've been thinking about memes this week. Memes are the equivalent of viruses in terms of culture. A virus is a bunch of chemicals that aren't exactly alive (yes, I know that is a whole other conversation) that fall in a specified sequence and basically go around either wrecking havoc or in some cases actually improving stuff. Regardless, viruses get your attention and so do memes. Memes are ideas that spiral out quickly, and we all catch them.

So a meme, a real meme, is viral: it propagates, it mutates, and it can die. Think about the ideas or patterns of behavior that seem to hit you out of nowhere and suddenly there you are receiving and delivering them willy nilly -- texting, blogging, facebooking, tweeting, oh, the meme delivery systems are endless, I think back in the day it was more like talking, cave drawing, smoke signaling, newspapering, radioing, phoning, CBs and my favorite meme delivery system: BOOKS!!! Lots of communication technologies spread memes. Memes are out of control, and they don't usually get it right. We waste lots of time on insignificant cultural fluff, but on some level even with all the missteps, memes do seem take us in useful directions, they challenge us, they open our eyes. Hopefully, if we use our good sense and open to the good stuff, they will take us toward our better selves.

I think as a creative content person, I'm sort of in the meme business. I really want to send ideas into the world that are viral, that propagate, that mutate and in the most basic terms reshape us in some way that is definitely better.

When you buzz about whatever is inside you, go beyond just what can an will be heard. Yes, I'm talking to you zombie-alien-clone-baby-angel-devil-hottie-vampire-ghost busters. All I've got to say if you're going there, go deeper. You have some deep well of MEANING within you. In the slush mud at the bottom of you are nuggets of gold. Put that stuff out there. Infect me with your golden memes. Do it. Light the world with the brightness of that treasure.

I'm still on gravity defying animals. My doodle for the week: "Ten Platypuses Glide"


This week's quote.
Love doesn't just sit there, like a stone; it has to be made, like bread, remade all the time, made new. Ursula K. Le Guin