When the video game artist Peter Chan was young, he loved to draw, but he would crumple up his “bad” drawings in fists of frustration. His father convinced him that if he laid the “bad” drawings flat instead of crumpling them up, he could fit more of them in the wastebasket. After his father died, Chan found a folder labeled “Peter” in his father’s possessions. When he looked inside, it was full of his old, discarded drawings. His father had snuck into his room and plucked the drawings he thought were worth saving from the wastebasket.
Encouragement takes many forms. Sometimes it’s fishing out beauty from a wastebasket.
As read from Austin Kleon’s Keep Going.
Kleon, Austin. Keep Going: 10 Ways to Stay Creative in Good Times and Bad. United States, Workman Publishing Company, 2019. pg 33,34
Floodlights and Goalposts 