Your Purpose?
Lindsay, I believe you had, and I am sure still have, a sustainable and admirable focus - creativity.
Your publication, Creative Humans, put out a welcome mat for creators - experienced and amateur. Good heavens, I drew a pencil for the first time and posted it on Creative Humans! It looked like the drawing of a kindergartener, but I did it because you encouraged me and gave me a safe place to be unsophisticated and raw — a place to be messy. I couldn't have done that anywhere else.
You also provided a community for Medium creators who have talents beyond writing. You brought artists and musicians together. Creative Humans is like a coffee shop where writers write, artists display their art, musicians play music, and poets slam. Especially in a pandemic, we need a space like that. We are missing and mourning spaces like that.
If not for you, I may never have created my publication Weeds & Wildflowers. Speaking to you on the phone to work through my questions creating it was what got me through the process.
A little story for you. After drawing that sophomoric pencil, I continued, for a short while, to experiment with drawing, but the erasing and starting over and looking at my earlier failures disheartened me.
Shortly after joining Medium in 2016, I read articles about a writing tablet called reMarkable:
https://medium.com/@REMARKABLEPAPER
I thought it was interesting and would be a wonderful device for those who like writing by hand or drawing. But, not a device for me.
Later, the publication Paper Poetry was created to encourage writing poems by hand. I regressed from computer writing to handwriting, crying all the while. But, I did it and turns out, I like it. As I age, I am embracing simpler activities - handwriting became one of them.
Then, I read that there was a new reMarkable tablet launching in 2020. I was working my ass off at my paying job and decided to treat myself to an extravagance I wouldn't have considered a few months earlier. I pre-ordered one. It arrived this month.
I am using my reMarkable and loving it. And, because I can erase all signs of my failed attempts at drawing, I am now learning to draw by watching YouTube videos and using my reMarkable.
What is the takeaway from this story? I would never be learning to draw if not for you. I would not have purchased a reMarkable if not for you. reMarkable would have one less sale if not for you. And, I may not have attempted to write for Paper Poetry if not for you. Weeds & Wildflowers would not exist if not for you.
These are not grand events or life-shattering lessons, but they are significant to me and are the direct result of knowing you.
Maybe, you are ready to move on to other ventures here on Medium or quit altogether. But, I hope not.
I hope you stay and encourage us to be messy and innovative and humanly creative.
