Maybe I'm too young

E-word,

I'm listening to the album 'Will You Find Me?' by Ida right now. Part of enjoying life involves listening to Ida and reading through something called the MMPDS, which is the Metallic Materials Properties Development and Standardization. What an oddly named document. Anyway, I'm looking through this to understand all of the nomenclature, and in the meantime my mind is wandering. Ida is one of those bands that has a small following; I'm assuming that the following is so small that it's not actually enough to support the band, but they somehow keep keeping on, going on tours and writing and playing music. I imagine that they are constantly skirting disaster financially, yet this is the life they've chosen, the life of artists. Do you think that is something that you and I could have ever considered? The life of a novelist at best must be one of constant fear and scrounging for magazine gigs to keep afloat writing. While there is something amazing about choosing a life like this, how in the world is it sustainable? Is it possible to love something so much to forgo comfort for passion?

It got me thinking about another thing lately. At church we always hear about people who have received a 'calling'. These are the people who become so convicted that they live their lives in service to God, and take on all the poverty and difficulty that entails, either trying to become pastors or long-term missionaries. These people put their faith in God; do those whose calling is art put their faith in art?

Anyway, I'll get back to work.

Love,

Toe