I just had an interesting conversation in the lunch room at work.

I’m not by nature a chatty person. I’m more a ‘keep your head down and get things done’ kind of person. But every so often, I find that despite my best efforts, I am required to talk to people. I try to make the best of it, and at least appear to be friendly. I think that this time I managed to do a reasonable job.

Anyway, back to the conversation. While the purpose of going to the lunch room was to cut my apple (I try to have an apple every day at work) I did interrupt my chopping at regular intervals to say words. And some of those words were actually not too bad.

The colleague I was chatting to is quite a talented musician, and he had the rather good grace to ask me how my writing was going. I had the even better grace to give him a reply, not saying too much but generally suggesting that things were moving forward (which they actually are). He responded by saying one word – beautiful.

This initially might seem to be a slightly unusual response, but my workmate offered a clarification. He suggested that being a creator – putting time and energy into creating new things, rather than just being a consumer (as most people are) was a beautiful thing. I, being the masterful conversationalist that I am, offered some mumbled assertion that it’s really not such a big deal and that to be honest it’s really a sign that I’m a bit mad. He was not put off, continuing to compliment my creative efforts.

Back at my desk, away from the pressure of being forced to be sociable, I was able to reflect on his comments. I decided that he was right. It is kind of cool to be a creator. It is kind of cool to be adding something to the creative human collective. Maybe my creations aren’t much in the grand scheme of things. Maybe I’ll never be compared to Shakespeare or Mozart or Picasso. But I’ve made the effort and I’ve created something, and I have had feedback that out in the world there are people who actually do enjoy my creations.

I know that by the time my life is done, I’ll be leaving the world with more than when I arrived. And that’s a pretty nice feeling.