The Right Questions with James Victore
The Right Questions is designed to help you get paid to do what you love and stay sane in the process.
The Right Questions with James Victore
Episode 49 - Beauty & Magic
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What does it mean to be truly human?
It's about connecting with our innate ability to create beauty and magic—something we're all born with but many have forgotten along the way.
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All right, let's do this thing. Howdy, I am James, Victoria, and this is the Right Questions, the podcast designed to help you get paid to do what you love. And today I have a subject that you've been waiting for. I know you've been writing going. Hey, james, you know when are you going to get to the, you know to the thing, and I'm going to give you the title and you're going to go oh God, thank God, you're talking about this now. I can't wait. And, of course, the title that has meaning for you and the tiny title that has meaning for all of us is, of course, beauty and Magic. I know You're welcome.
Speaker 1:So the way I came about this title and this subject and this story, or these stories, is I was asked by a pal of mine, quite frankly, a wonderful guy and a genius in his own right and a great businessman, and he'd started a conference. He'd started a conference of app developers, of talk about specialization and conferences. But he had this conference of app developers and he called me like a couple of nights before it was going to happen and he said hey, james, I've got a conference going and I've got all these app developers and they're all really boring. He says and I want you to come in and can you come and can you create a um, um, a talk about um? And he literally says, can you create a talk about beauty and magic? And you know, just like AI, my mind works very well off of prompts and I thought, oh my God, of course I can create a talk about beauty and magic. And I literally sat down and drew this thing out. And the only time I've ever shared this is in a, you know, a very short slideshow whenever I have an event, because it's a really great way to start, right. So.
Speaker 1:But the story goes like this and so, but the story goes like this the evening before the conference, there was a drinky event, right. So before the gig, there was this drinky event. And I was at the drinky event and possibly having some drinkies, because I did that then and I was chatting with a few of the other speakers right, the app developers and they were sharing what they were working on and it was all very interesting. And then one of them said, oh, james, what are you speaking on? And I said, oh, I've created a talk on beauty and magic. And this guy, without missing a beat, says, oh, I have none of that. A beat says, oh, I have none of that. I remember feeling rather appalled and I actually got up on stage the next day and started my talk that way, saying hey, I was at the Drinky event last night.
Speaker 1:I mentioned to a couple of fellows that I was doing a talk on beauty and magic and one of those guys says, oh, I don't, I have none of that. And I said if you do not have, or feel as though you have, no beauty and magic, or even the capability to approach beauty and magic in your work, in your life, then please fucking stop, then please step out of the creative gene pool. If you are not offering work or product or words from your gift, from your soul, then what are you doing? What are you bringing? Whose shoulder are you looking over? What is your drive? What is your inspiration? What is your motivation? Just work, you just want to be busy. No one wants to experience your work. We want a piece of you. We want you to share of yourself.
Speaker 1:You and I, dear listeners, you and I don't work because we have to. Gotta pay rent yes, gotta pay rent. Gotta pay mortgage yes, got to pay rent. Got to pay mortgage got to build right. Want to buy presents? Sure, but we work because we get to. It is my.
Speaker 1:I understand this, I know this daily and it's hard for me not to be completely humbled by this, but it is my privilege to do what I do for a living, to use my words and my hand-eye coordination, if you will, and my left hand and its ability to make squiggly marks. I understand that and I believe that you do, or you would not be here. I'm sure there are people who sign on to the right questions, who drop off fairly quickly because they are creatively challenged. That's the purpose of this program is to challenge you, to look inside and say are you just working to be busy until you die? Listen, you are here and I am here and we are all together. Listen, you are here and I am here and we are all together, goo-goo-ka-choo, because we want to change the world with our creative gifts, not to create more shit that people don't need. You know, I remember when I was a poster designer and a much more traditional graphic designer, I never wanted to make shit that people throw away. That was my main personal objective, my goal whenever designing something. I'm going to make something that people are not going to want to throw away.
Speaker 1:So that's why this little talk of mine on beauty and magic is especially important, because it's about what we do, and I mean we as humans on this planet, not just you and I, dear listener, or do you say, dear reader, in this situation, I don't know but not only you and I, because we have these specialized gifts and specialized tools that we've turned into value. Right, it's not just about what we do as creatives, but we as human beings, that innate tool that we have. This is what human beings do because it's what comes naturally to us. Think of that word for a second naturally, as gifted by nature, by birth, by nature. It's in us Because, as some genius wrote in the first line of Perfection he says, we are all born wildly creative, not just some of us, but some of us forgot. So onward with beauty and magic.
Speaker 1:So my talk starts at four million years ago. Do you remember what happened? Do you remember where you were? Four million years ago, something amazing happened, even though the first human ancestors appeared between supposedly anthropologists tell us 5 million and 7 million years ago. At 4 million years ago, something amazing happened. I think it was on a Thursday. Anthropologists surmise that at about 4 million years ago, we decided to stand up and stay that way. Right, human ancestors became bipedal. We started walking upright, right, we climbed down from the trees and we never went back. We separated ourselves from the apes. Now, anthropologists surmise it's a very good word that the reason we removed ourselves from the apes is that apes throw poo and we just don't play like that anymore, right.
Speaker 1:So listen, so 4 million years ago we had a good start. We started standing up, right, but we were hunter-gatherers and, quite frankly, much more gathering than hunting, because we hadn't invented any tools. Right, we didn't have arrows and bows or even knives 4 million years ago. And this poses a problem, a design problem, if you think about it, because we used our hands for everything. They were our cups and our plates and our forks. We ate out of them. But they were also our tools for grooming and cleaning ourselves. So you know there's an inherent design flaw here. You know, we don't design kitchen tools that can also be used in the bathroom, right? So there's a design flaw and we live like that for one and a half million years. You know, thinking about how to solve this problem. Gee whiz, I just used my hands for that. Now I got to go do that. I don't know about this. This don't work.
Speaker 1:So because the first tools that we found we as modern man, the first tools that we've found and can date and identify, come from two and a half millions years ago, and these were found in both Kenya and the Olduvai Gorge Right. So finally, we have some basic tools, but they are basic. They are stones and wood that we have chipped a little bit into an edge to get a knife or something simple. And it's not until 50,000 years ago do anthropologists find another leap and they begin to find tools with marks on them, with carvings on them, because around 50,000 years ago we see the beginnings of agriculture and the rise of our first civilizations. We stopped being strictly hunter-gatherers and roaming all the time looking for food and we learned some basic farming so we could create our own food, we could grow our own food, so we weren't traveling all the time, and this ability to stay in one place allowed us to create community and build families and a clan Right, and also we were also able to create for ourselves time, time, time, time to sit together by the fire, because we weren't constantly on the search for food. This is also the same time we started developing language and telling stories and our ability to make and use tools.
Speaker 1:Okay, so listen, the evolution of man from 4 million years ago to 50,000 years ago follows this kind of long, slow process of developing right along Maslow's hierarchy. Do you know Maslow? It is a pyramid that we go through developmentally. We have to first take care of ourselves with our food and water and a roof, so we have some safety, and then we build into where we can have. When we have that, then we can have love and belonging and create families, and then, when we have that and we're stable there, then we can move on to the higher functions of consciousness, of thought, of poetry or literature, because before we can have art or literature or philosophy, we need a place to sleep and we have to be able to feed ourselves. We have to have a full belly and a roof over our head and our safety has to be ensured. So 50,000 years ago we started to be able to do this, and we started to be able to do this and we started to be able to decorate, if I can use the word and even decorate is such a flimsy word for this, but we can start to decorate our tools and our lives. We've developed some skills and crafts and manual dexterity, and this point, this point, this distinction along Maslow's hierarchy as we move up, is important and will come up again. So pay attention.
Speaker 1:So the first articles that anthropologists find with details have carvings and markings. But listen to this. These carvings and markings have nothing to do with the usefulness of the object. It doesn't make a bowl more bowl-y, it doesn't make an arrow fly straighter. Their imagery, their early remnants of type or language or pictograms, their ceramic or mud pots with markings and decoration. Right now you're thinking oh man, I wish James Victoria could be my mentor, my guru. Hell, I wish he was my coach. Well, you can make that happen. Go to yourworkisagiftcom. There's a questionnaire that will probably help you out, but it'll also give you access to a free call. So let's talk, let's free you from overwhelm and creative frustration, let's build your business and help you get paid to do what you love. Again, go to yourworkisagiftcom, let's talk.
Speaker 1:And scientists and archaeologists call these things. They call them talisman or mojo, or totems, or gree-gree or juju, and to me these words are almost these. They're throwaways, they're almost insults. They make diminutive these marks, because the objects are now amazing and they're beautiful. And more than that, they're powerful, because these objects are now energy infused. Whoever made this put themselves and their energies and their vibrations into these tools. So the arrow is no longer an arrow, it is my arrow and it will bring me great fortune. Do you see? Much like someone picking out a car because it's a beautiful shade of blue, or a vanity plate, for that matter, or picking a new coffee cup merely because we like the color. These things give our objects meaning. These things give our objects meaning. Think about a skate punk with stickers all over his helmet right. These are identifiers of a tribe and a language of their own and a belonging to a place. This is also why American Indians had tribal ceremonies before battle and covered their face and bodies and horses with war paint. This prepared them and their spirits with energy and fierceness and raised their vibration and raised their abilities and raise their abilities.
Speaker 1:I worked for both Bobby Brown and Aveda and learned a lot about makeup. So much like the war paint for the Native Americans. Lipstick and eyebrow pencil does the same for women. It is armor against the world. It is also their humanity and their dignity. Do you know the story about when the American troops liberated the Nazi camps right, and brought them chocolates and lipsticks? And you know some basic things? Yes, I said lipstick into the Nazi camps right, bergen-belsen particularly. And there's a story that a colonel, his name is Mervyn Gonan, wrote and I will read it here.
Speaker 1:It was shortly after the British Red Cross arrived though it may have no connection, that a very large quantity of lipstick arrived. This was not at all what the men wanted. This was not at all what the men wanted. We were screaming for hundreds and thousands of other things and I didn't know who asked for lipstick. I wished so much that I could discover who did, because it was an action of genius, sheer, unadulterated brilliance. I believe nothing did more for these internees than the lipstick.
Speaker 1:Women lay in bed with no sheets and no nightie, but with scarlet red lips. You saw them wandering about with nothing but a blanket over their shoulders, but with scarlet red lips. I saw a woman dead on the post-mortem table, and clutched in her hand was a piece of lipstick. At last, someone had done something to make them individuals again. They were someone, no longer merely the number tattooed on their arm. At last they could take an interest in their appearance. That lipstick gave them back their humanity. Right, lipstick, it's just paint. It's just paint. But beauty and magic is intrinsically linked with being human and you and I, dear pals, we have that power.
Speaker 1:I was in the UK for a talk and on my day off I went for a walk and I came upon the oldest umbrella shop in London, a beautiful, a beautiful shop with large windows with gold leaf paint. I was in a Dickens movie all of a sudden and I went in and I didn't need an umbrella, I didn't need anything, I was just curious. But I went in and I found just barrel after barrel of these beautiful canes, like a cane, you know, with a curled top, and they were all carved out of a single piece of wood, with the knots and everything, and they were just exquisite. They were so beautiful as objects. But I thought, oh, I don't need a cane. Now it looks silly me walking around with a cane and I don't need one. How precocious of me. But then there were bins of walking sticks, country walking sticks, which were just straight and longer. I thought, oh well, I can have that, I'll start a trend in Brooklyn. And I was rummaging through these barrels, at these walking sticks and picking them up and going oh my God, these are so beautiful. Look at this, look at this.
Speaker 1:And what happened? Guess what happened? You can tell me what happened. Why did I leave with one? I left with one because it spoke to me. I left with one because it spoke to me. I left with one because its vibration matched my vibration.
Speaker 1:This is what happened. Things register with us. They meet our existing vibration. Everything works that way. Everything is energy. Everything vibrates, including you. So everything vibrates. This is a simplified description of the quantum field theory that basically says everything in the universe is made up of energy vibrating at different frequencies. This means everything vibrates, including you. We all vibrate at different frequencies or volumes, from low to high, and I bet some of you even go to 11. That idea alone should stir up the universe in you, and applying this to your life means that it is entirely possible to raise someone else's energy by using your own. Hell, puppies do it all the time. Right? We have two dogs. They raise our energy all the time, and you can raise someone else's energy by using your creative energies. That's the law.
Speaker 1:So I mentioned earlier that Maslow and his theory would come up again, and here it is.
Speaker 1:What happens to many people is that they forget that they were born with an innate sense of creativity and the powers that go along with that. They forgot about their beauty and their magic and they're not aware that they vibrate, probably because they vibrate at such a low frequency they're practically see-through, almost invisible. So, in effect, many people today are like our prehistoric ancestors, you know, for two to three million years, stuck, stuck in the middle of Maslow's pyramid. You know, our heads are so full of the idea that we need a job so we can get paid, so we can pay rent, we need money to survive. You know, I remember getting out of high school and I was given that what now? Well, you get a job. Why? Because you're going to need money. Okay, okay, we have become so involved in that small circle that we're stuck in the middle of the pyramid, you know, like on a little rat wheel. Right, that's where that image comes up. You know, we're just like rats in a cage and we're unable to get, and we're unable even to get past the procuring of a roof and food and some sense of safety, because our minds are so stuck there we're unable to see or realize the beauty and magic that we're capable of.
Speaker 1:And for you, my dears, when I say beauty and magic, you know. You know what I mean. You know what I mean. I mean fucking beauty and real magic, of course, the things that happen when we infuse our work with our energy, when we use our own mojo or our own handwriting or our own thoughts or our own love or our own beauty and put it in our work. Our ability to make some simple marks, our ability to choose colors oh these little doodles I make, oh those beautiful carvings Hell. Our ability to dress someone else or pick out makeup for someone, our ability to tell a story or write a meaningful story this is all beauty and magic and this all comes from your energy and it is all meaningful. You guys are awesome. I sit back in awe and watch you. I'm James Victoria. Thank you for being here, thank you for supporting this program, thank you for inspiring me to keep going. I'll be talking at you, adios.