I was pretty much resigned to the fact that the world was being completely engulfed by consumerism. Yesterday, something happened. My faith was renewed at the Saint Paul Art Crawl. It was so inspiring to be surrounded with that much creativity, intelligence and interconnectedness.

For thousands of years, this is what humans did best, we made things either for survival or fun that allowed us to express our awesome power of creativity. Unfortunately, the modern world doesn't encourage the average person to use creative expression. Really, who has the time? In the last hundred years the powers that be have tried their best to mold us into one thing, consumers of corporately produced goods. This has largely succeeded and as a result we are more disconnected and often confused as a species. An important part of who we are has been forgotten and it's created a huge void that try to fill with countless other things.

I was reminded yesterday that there is a great and growing underground community of artists and musicians out there trying to change this. Although you'd never know this by tuning into the media. These individuals are attempting to regain a bit of what has been lost and integrate it back into our lives again. For this, I commend them.

To hold something born of someone's mind and made of their two hands helps us to reconnect with the awesome power we have lost. As a species, we have such depth, talent, so much intelligence within us. We are so much more than we are lead to believe, the power is just waiting to be awakened.

I liken being a creative person today to being a circus juggler. Often times we have keep two lives in constant motion, one to pay the bills, the other to practice our chosen craft. It's exhausting and both lives suffer for it. The luckiest among us have found a way to successfully merge the two but most of us only dream of doing so. It is the hope of one day joining these two aspects of ourselves that keeps us going.

I saw a prayer hanging by the door of an artist's studio, beautifully stamped into a square of tarnished copper, "Artist's Prayer - Lord, please allow me to live the kind of life that they think I do". This says it all.