iPad'ed my Wallet

The season is Covid, not to mention winter is ever so slowly changing into spring. Long days stuck at home with seemingly nothing to do except scrolling through social media and classically binge watching Netflix. Oh and getting some work done at home too, that is also important.

The incessant need to be productive is constantly pushing on my consciousness. This might be a combination of years of expectations laid on by parents, school, work, or it is an internal struggle with feelings of inadequacy that I think everyone struggles with. Taking just a moment to scroll through Instagram I see countless people all excelling in something. There is someone more creative than me, someone else more successful, and many others more active than me. To top it all off they have the viewer basis confirming all of these things.

I can’t leave home right now either so I guess I should just start working on something. Anything. Filling my time with some kind of project would make me feel better. My brain says that if I could create something beautiful that random people on the internet can look at and affirm, I would feel better about my lack of motivation. Or in turn actually be motivated to keep creating things and putting works of art out into the world for people to see. Instead of staring blankly at a wall of already dried paint, waiting for nothing. Yes, I know still more interesting than golf but not by much.

Maybe I’ll find inspiration on Instagram, I can get back to writing later…

Well, that was fun, looks like all I need to be an amazing artist is an iPad and an Apple Pencil. Now there is a difficult combination of emotions running through my brain. The right side of my brain wants to be able to create artwork that is as beautiful as some of the things I’ve just seen. And even if it’s not beautiful, hopefully it will at least be funny, goofy, or wonderfully quirky in my own unique way. On the other side of my brain I’m thinking, “there goes another couple of minutes, okay hours, of unproductive time.”

The argument starts to turn into a kind of court room. The two sides of my brain in a constant struggle between creativity and logic. To make things simpler let’s call them Larry the Left Brain and Ricky the Right Brain. They flip a coin to see who goes first and of course Larry calls out heads. Fortunately for Ricky, the coin lands tails and he is given the honour of the first opening argument.

“Obviously we need to be able to flex our creative muscles. We have far too much time on our hands to just sit and do nothing. The world is full of beauty and wonder and needs to be explored. Just look at all of these beautiful digital paintings. We could be doing that! The technology is right there. Look at the images floating around in here, so many ideas that need to be expressed. You are putting down the creative process by not giving us the tools we need to create. Joining into the community of right-minded people and finding fulfillment in expressing the deep emotions of our soul. Saying no to this request is unconstitutional and denies our freedom of expression. Unethical and above all, inhuman. Why bother having hands if they are not allowed to draw, paint, sketch, or in some way express themselves.

"This is a matter of heart, of soul, of the longing to be heard. The world is full of too many silent voices. We must spread the word that creativity is integral to society. A necessity for a vibrant culture.

“I have a dream that we will create. Give me the tools to create.”

Ricky Right moves to take his seat, as Larry Left steps forward to make his case.

“Organs of the court (because who else are these two power houses of the brain going to be arguing in front of?) if it pleases you I would like to present my opening statements. Rules and order, that is what we must base our decisions on, all else is chaos. Do you want to throw us into the realms of chaos? I think not.

“My first point is simple. An iPad is expensive. Times are tough right now and money is tight. Adding an iPad to our shopping cart would be a misuse of resources.

“My second point. Even if we do purchase this high-cost item, would we make full use of it? Or would we just end up playing simple uninspiring games and watching advertisements?

“My third point. We already have a sketch pad and perfectly adequate collection of pencils, markers, and paints. Should we not use these first? Did we not buy them in the first place to express our creativity? I rest my case.”

The arguments go back and forth in my brain for weeks. Neither one really making an impact on the other. After all, the right and left sides of the brain don’t really see eye to eye. Which is odd considering they live in the same house. I shall not bore you with the details as the theatre of my mind is not exactly viewable on a tv screen. Though I can explain some of the additional arguments.

Apart from simply creating, an iPad would also come in very handy for looking up recipes in the kitchen, using budgeting apps to track expenses (like this purchase), and yes playing games and using apps that are not available on the iPhone. On the opposite side of the coin there are also dozens of possible alternatives to this singular form of creation, as the left side of the brain so succinctly stated. And money is tight, so is it really worth it? But I have been dreaming of getting an iPad for quite some time and it would be a lot of fun to have a cool new piece of tech. It’s also not impossibly expensive, so long as we don’t get the iPad Pro, which would definitely be overkill for computing capacity.

In the end the deciding factor was my birthday.

This was the argument that finally swayed Larry to allow the iPad entry into the shopping cart. If this lovely item were in fact a present and not just a splurge purchase, things would be different. It still took convincing and was not a decision made easily. A parent may have also bought the Apple Pencil as a present, thus lowering the price point once again. The rest was covered as a birthday present. And on top of that a combined 2-year anniversary present, and valentine’s day presents.

Case closed! And with all parties in agreement, it was a win-win all around.

Put an iPad in the shopping cart and hit confirm! Now it’s time to start creating.