No Hidden Meanings: Caregiving, Grief, and Creativity (video)

So it's been a while, even for me and my biannual blogging routine. This year has been a lot. My mom died and we put my dad in memory care, among other personal challenges, and so naturally I’m online to bullshit about the creative process.

I initially planned to make a straightforward video about how I kept being creative through all of it (finished a novel draft, created two mobile apps). I had my usual pile of faux insights. But then, while cleaning out my parents' apartment, I found a book I remembered from my childhood: No Hidden Meanings (words by Sheldon Kopp, photographs by Claire Flanders). The first page says "This is it!" alongside a picture of a cemetery (and a child walking in the background).

To hell with my tips. I decided to talk about this fabulous 1970s book, my continued obsession with the video game Cyberpunk 2077, and, underneath it all, trying to be creative while caregiving and grieving.

I'm not sure I'm in the perfect place to talk about this stuff coherently. But I want to share it anyway.

⚠️ FYI: This video contains minor Act 1 spoilers for Cyberpunk 2077.

Take care.

Oh wait. If you're actually interested in my new apps:

• Done-ish: A to-do app that won't judge you. Simple, colorful, made for regular mortals.

• Last Next! Keeps track of the last time you did a thing and when you need to do it next. I built it to track medications, but it works for stretching, watering plants, whatever. No streaks to break, no charts to feel bad about. Free.

And then my app that has been around for a while, but I still use it to build stickers and check weather:

• Neurotic Stix: Make animated stickers with your own captions from 70+ templates, for all your self-deprecating messaging needs. The neurotic possibilities are endless!