A lot of (alledgedly) wise people subscribe to the idea that you can't be effectively creative and accomplish anything noteworthy if you are operating from within your comfort zone.
The cat as art
The other week, I was even listening to a podcast where someone asserted that "comfortable homo sapiens would have gone extinct;" the point being that we can only grow as a result of hardship and suffering.
Is that really true, though?
Most of the time, I feel more like I have been stuck during periods of hardship, and it wasn't until I managed to get back on an even keel again that any personal growth took place.
I expect the truth there is that we each parse hardships differently. For some, it's a case of "rising to the occasion," while others get stuck in place.
That said, I expect this sense of "stuckness" has different expressions.
Few people do well and "keeping on" when they find themselves in a situation where they realize that no matter what they do or how hard they work, it will not be enough to help them reach their goals... all it does is slow their demise.
Modern society is not a particularly friendly place.
I'm not suggesting that life hasn't always had its challenges... going back all the way to our cave-dwelling ancestors. But a significant part of what makes this day and age difficult for many is that we're no longer dealing just with natural threats and challenges, we are dealing with contrived ones, and they come to us in an "unnatural" way.
Whereas we have undoubtedly derived some benefits from the Industrial Revolution the one "unnatural" thing it did was put everyone on the same schedule... taking many away from the natural rhythms of things.
If your natural inclination is to sleep from 2:00am till 10:00am, and you're at your most productive between 4:00pm and midnight... it pretty much screws up your world when you are required for obey the proverbial "factory whistle" that blows at 7:00am and ends at 5:00pm.
The point being that accomplishment would be really difficult, hardship or not.
In other news, today — September 16th — marks the 6th anniversary of when I created this "creative expression" side account as an adjunct to the original 
Till the next one, thanks for stopping by!
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Curator Cat, September 16th, 2025