During the last year of college my friend invited me to get some pizza at Magoo’s on University Ave. I walked down University and instantly saw that they had started drinking well before I had even been invited.
Empty pitchers and red faces abounded.
I walked in, they saw me, and yelled in unison, “It’s touchy-feely D Neely!”
I was pissed. But I shrugged it off, stayed, drank my beer and ate some pizza.
What would cause them to say something like that? Was I being weak? Was I giving off the wrong signals? Nope. I checked myself. I write songs. I like poetry. I identify as an artist. Being in touch with your emotions is critical to art.
I’ve thought about this cruel rhyme for quite a while. Then I owned it.
In A Whole New Mind, Daniel Pink writes:
This is an age in which those who “think different” will be valued even more than ever. According to Pink, we’re living in an age that is “animated by a different form of thinking and a new approach to life – one that prizes aptitudes that I call “high concept” or “high touch.” High concept involves the capacity to detect patterns and opportunities, to create artistic and emotional beauty, to craft a satisfying narrative…”
Pink goes on to describe our current time as:
the “Conceptual Age” where “high touch” and “high concept” aptitudes are first among equals. “The future belongs to a different kind of person.” Designers, inventors, teachers, storytellers – creative and empathetic right-brain thinkers whose abilities mark the fault line between who gets ahead and who doesn’t.
Haters got you down? Keep doing you. The world needs you.
“You are the you-est you you’ll ever be.” – Dr. Seuss
David Neely 