Inquiry: It is better to produce than to enjoy

It is better to produce than to enjoy. (Producing literature, music, performances, inventions and more.)

1. True?
   Yes, I can find where that feels true. It sometimes feels true.
2. Sure it is true?
   No.
3. What happens when I take that story as true?
   • I feel I should produce (more). Paint. Draw. Write. Create something for others to enjoy.
   • When it is a belief, it feels compulsive. It becomes a have-to. Strained. Tense. Pressure. The enjoyment goes out of it.
   • When I (tell myself I) don’t produce, I feel inferior. Less than. A failure. (Often very slightly, but I can find it.)
   • I overlook what I am actually producing. I discount what I am actually doing. I feel it doesn’t count, and that I should do more or something different.
   • I feel pressured. I pressure myself.
   • I make those who produce better than me, and myself – and others I tell myself don’t produce – inferior.
4. Who would I be without it?
   • OK. Receptive. Recognizing us all as humans, producing and enjoying in many different ways – including many I don’t notice or overlook. Recognizing us all as mirrors of each other.
   • Recognizing that both are needed, in a very direct and real sense. What Michael Jackson did wouldn’t be half as interesting without the audience, everyone enjoying his music and performance. What he did is now enjoyed by millions, and that’s where it gets its real value. It gets its value when it is received and appreciated. (And even when it is not appreciated! That is part of the richness of it as well.)
   • I can appreciate the richness of it all. The enjoyment of producing, of receiving and enjoying, of receiving and not enjoying. It is all part of the richness.
5. Turnarounds.
   • It is not better to produce than to enjoy.
     • We all do both, in many different ways.
     • What is created is appreciated by those receiving it. That is why it is created. Production and enjoyment of it are two sides of the same coin. They cannot be separated.
     • Receiving is what allows (some of) those producing to continue to produce. They wouldn’t be able to do it full time without the support from those receiving and enjoying it.
     • Receiving and enjoying is what gives something (a performance, music, literature etc.) meaning. And it is received differently by each of us and each time, which is what gives it a richness of meaning – far beyond what the one producing it could have been aware of. What is created is created again when it is received, and always in a new and different way.
   • It is worse to produce than to enjoy.
     • It is worse to produce if there is not also receiving and enjoyment of it.
     • It may be easier for others to receive and enjoy, in some cases.