Gaining Perspective on Your Treasures

Listening to an interview with Morris Hayes, about Prince’s forthcoming album, Welcome 2 America, was fascinating!

What intrigued me most was discovering that Prince had a vault of his material. As you can imagine from the statement, I am not a Prince devotee, yet I am fascinated by creative people and creativity.

So I got to thinking. If I had a vault, what would I put in it? Upon reflection, I thought, well, I suppose that I do have a vault—creations of mine—that I haven’t shared with the world. Do you?

At one point, the interviewer, asked Hayes a leading question, revealing her thoughts about the release of a new Prince album.  In her opinion, material in the vault was not meant to be seen or heard by other people. Her thinking was that the material was inferior to Prince’s work that was out in the world. I loved Haynes’s response, “Well, I would disagree with the premise that he didn’t want it out there.” He went on to say that he knew some of the material and that it was even better than anything that had even been released—it just hadn’t been the right time.  I’d suggest listening to the interview to hear his explanation of Prince’s thinking.

So my question for myself and for you is, what’s in your vault? What have you and I not shared with the world, and why?

My vault contains, hand lettering, a wee bit of calligraphy, some quilts that I love that are WIPs/works in progress, and plans for the future—of art I want to create and learning that I want to do. As you can tell, my thoughts are not just about physical artifacts, like card decks and large-scale art projects, it’s also my thinking and imagining… what about you?

All this thinking makes me wonder if I want to begin to be more like a museum than a person with just a vault. Perhaps I should think in terms of rotating exhibits, showing my work to other people, and engaging in some of those ideas that I’m holding onto for a future time…  because honestly, life is impermanent. I am here today and I may be here tomorrow, I just don’t know. I say that as a reality, with no pessimism intended.

As some of you may know, I have an interest in and graphically record people’s imagining and planning for the ends of their lives. This is deeply personal and rewarding work. It is a good and constant reminder that no day, no moment, should be taken for granted as the future is uncertain. 

I think this weekend I’m going to look at my creations that are in physical form and decide which I will hang on a wall in the house or share on social media. And, I will look at some of those things I have planned for 2022 and beyond, and make decisions about whether some of those ideas and projects should shift forward on my timeline, or remain where they are, as crowding the present is not my goal. My intention is to consciously and consistently check-in with myself, my life at this moment, and align with my vision of who I want to be in the world.

What are you moved to do in light of reflecting on your treasures, your vault, and your future? I’d love to hear from you.