1+1>1 — On Leaving Behind Individualism
Last week I read this article from Yancey Strickler on Metalabel, and it got me thinking.
My biggest takeaway was that pursuit of a vision—or, let’s say, the living of a life—scales profoundly not just in impact but in meaning, for both the individual and the group, when the chase is taken up in community.
A monument to the apostle and pilgrim Saint James, on the outskirts of Santiago de Compostela, Spain. Photo credit and copyright: Adam Groves / Ultreya Editorial
This is not to say that solo effort (whatever that actually means) is without merit or transformative power of its own. At the same time, I believe that Western society--well, let me speak for myself. I (for most of my life) have had a pathological, self-deceiving, self-harming obsession with individual achievement.
A long time ago I internalized the message that anything done in cooperation with others was worse for me and for the effort. In jobs, in school projects, and in personal relationships, I rarely trusted the people around me to respect me or my role in things (quite the opposite: letting myself get close to others was often a recipe for emotional and, in my youth, physical disaster). I usually didn’t believe “partners” would do justice to whatever was the matter at hand. And I certainly didn't want to share credit with a bunch of people who, in my skewed opinion, contributed mainly dead weight and a will to trade excellence for cheap, embarrassing results.
There were always exceptions. In each situation, there were always a few people I liked and trusted, and with whom I was glad to associate and maybe (maybe) even to work; even if I always engaged them with a baseline of uneasiness. Part of me was always waiting for the law of mistrust and isolation which I was ignoring on their behalf to reassert itself.
But about ten years ago this all started to shift—very slowly—as something began to push me up and out of my absolute fear and distrust of any real, active community. A big part of what changed was that I stumbled into a corporate arena of incredible stress along with increasingly amazing blessings, which evolved into an emerging personal renaissance, largely thanks to some very fine folks who I was compelled to—then eager to—team up with day after day.
It still feels bizarre to me to reflect on a decade of corporate participation—an arena that to me is a nexus for so much that is wrong with the modern human condition—as one of the best times of my life. Or let us call it one of the most healing times of my life, for that is just what it was, even as I grappled with depression and loneliness, as I painstakingly learned, day in and day out and with every part of me, just how much I stood to gain by holding hands with others.
I began to perceive how much I could not accomplish on my own as I was thrust into situations where I needed to rely on others. I also found, to my delight and edification, that life in general was so much more fulfilling and fun when I had positive partners to go through it with.
There is a lot more to this story, but suffice to say for now that ever since, life and my higher power have (in their sneaky, persistent, gracious, beautiful manner) helped not just my mind but my body to grok these life lessons a little more with every experience.
My current livelihood as the owner of an editing business brings me face to face with these truths almost every day. I am constantly—and happily, I might add—learning how to graciously and constructively occupy a supporting role in the missions of others, which is to say my clients. And with my professional peers, I am also learning to invite others into my mission.
One of the nicest parts of all of it is the sincere joy I increasingly experience at the privilege of being a supporting actor in someone else's passion play, and the equally sincere joy I feel when others (to my ongoing but diminishing surprise) help me in ways I could not have helped myself.
Today what I find challenging is to comprehend how I could have ever believed that anything is truly, strictly the output of just one person’s efforts. Many creatives have said it, but it’s another thing to live it, and I suppose I have finally lived enough to really understand that the stuff of life, like the soup in the creative cauldron, is just too mixed up for isolationism to credibly distill or contain it.
None of this is to say that I’m totally over toxic individualism. It hides in the shadows of my heart, biding its time for the chance to chime in with its reactionary opinions. And sometimes it hides in plain sight, like the mortar between the bricks of commerce and society. I am not infrequently exasperated, confused, or simply grieved by a vein of individualistic opportunism I witness in my country writ large and even in the relatively communal freelance editing world.
When I find myself in such difficult spots, part of me says, “See? Everyone else is still doing it. Don’t you regret your change of heart? Wouldn’t you rather go back to going it alone?”
I’m glad to say that my honest answer is increasingly, “Well, no. Of course I don’t want to retreat to the one-arm-tied-behind-my-back, sub-zero misery of my solitary company.”
You may be wondering what all this talk about my personal journey has to do with your need for a reliable editor or creative inspiration. Well, here I come to the point.
I know how arduous and lonely writing can sometimes be, and the ambivalent hunger a writer can feel for companionship. I say ambivalent because I also know how risky—even insane—it can feel to invite someone else into a profoundly intimate process of self-revelation and self-expression.
A lot of writers come by their reluctance to share honestly. Maybe that describes you as well. Other writers or editors are not always helpful…they do not always even want to be helpful. People bring their own stuff to your writing, and while that can be a very good thing, it can also be a pretty counterproductive thing (I am sorry to say that I understand this from both sides of the fence).
Time and experience—again, on both sides of the table—have carved into my body and soul a deep reverence for creators like you and for the fresh, young expressions you bring into the world. I especially respect those (and I suspect you may be one of them) who have the courage and commitment to ask for help in order to express themselves and genuinely connect with others as well as they can.
My goal as an editor is to celebrate and encourage the spirit and ambition of every earnest, good-hearted writer I come into contact with. I want to help you gain deeper access to the personal and interpersonal rewards of writing. I want to help you discover your capacity to face the challenging times, the time- and energy-consuming times, and the vulnerable times. I want to help you have a positive, perhaps even redeeming experience of creative collaboration. And I want to empower you to discover joy and fulfillment in every step of your creative process.
As Strickler’s article demonstrates so powerfully, what we create alone doesn’t hold a candle to what a healthy collaboration can launch with great booms and twinkling, celebratory colors into the sky. So my arms remain open, and I will continue to shout my invitation and request to you, to myself, and to the rest of the world: “Let’s create together!”