A Letter For u/DJUggz (Taylor Thompson)
The Juggler with the best vibes
This morning the reddit algo fed me a video of a mysterious man, some class beats and 3 glowing orbs. At first I questioned if this was another New Jersey UFO drone video but that quickly faded as I got mesmerized. Here it is, get sucked in for yourself:
Sick!
It’s so smooth and effortless. Some of the moves he makes seem impossible to do. When I showed my son the video his first comment was “I think it’s fake, no way is he doing that!”
Sometimes I think our truest form as humans is in learning and performing these acts or movements that have no discernable value other than just being awesome. This man’s juggling is art. It’s incredible.
I’ve long believed that the best art is something that can transport us. Where it somehow has the power to place itself inside of our minds and then our minds can take it and run with it however we please. We all have these pieces of art that do this, I’ve got a few right off the top of my head:
Bon Iver - 2 Entire Albums (For Emma, Forever Ago and Bon Iver, Bon Iver), a couple Youtube performances (I Can’t Make You Love Me / Nick of Time), and several tracks from his newer albums ( 8 (circle) | RABi | Naeem )
The Grand Budapest Hotel - Wes Anderson
Vincent Van Gogh - Starry Night, Self-Portrait, and Cypresses
This list could be sooooo long. The point is, creative acts, when done really well, are transformative. This won’t be the last time I mention this, but in the coming age of Artificial Intelligence I believe humans ability to do these creative acts will get more and more valuable - especially when it’s entirely created by a human.
We will attach ourselves to human creativity more, appreciate it more, seek it out more, and have more time and energy to pursue those creative acts. I believe as we enter into this new age this human creativity boom will explode as rapidly as the technology around us and it will be equally as powerful.
Maybe that’s wishful thinking on my part, because I LOVE human creativity, but I can’t find a good argument against it other than we will get sucked into AI Algo’s and it will ruin humanity as we know it (ugh, that would be objectively terrible and I don’t think we will let that happen as a species).
Let me bring this back full circle. u/DJUggz aka Taylor Thompson and his juggling transported me this morning. His videos took me to a new place, they soothed my mind and made me happy. His juggling is a creative act and that act, despite being seemingly valueless, is incredibly valuable for being able to transport our minds somewhere peaceful, wondrous, and joyful.
For that, I thank him.
With love and deep appreciation,
-Andrew