There was a concern a year and a half ago that one of the methods that I believed gave me, what I thought of as an edge, would essentially vanish with the abolition of drinking in the studio. It was how I was seeing in my mind how the activities of studio work, drinking, and problem solving were all tied together that created this belief, that by being my own biggest problem, I constantly created new possibilities simply by addressing the whimsical decision making of a functional alcoholic. A bit of an optimistic (and codependent) attitude that rationalized addiction… and even now, I don’t actually accept that I was entirely wrong.
What was normalized during that period was a comfort with a form of lateral thinking that prioritized novelty over adherence to group expectation. Much of that novelty needs to be born out of taking risks, making mistakes, and adjusting. I was concerned that all that decision making that kept taking me off trail would vanish once I sobered up, but delightfully, that hasn’t been the case. Apparently it wasn’t the alcohol that affected my taste in decision making, it’s my personality. The years spent pickling myself let me become comfortable making decisions that took me away from everyone else’s ideas of what “right” looks like and follow my own ideas of what “right” can be. After all, it feels like it’s supposed to be about what “can be” rather than what “should be”.
…Lateral Thinking…
Zygote Blum 