We drove to Santa Barbara Saturday to have lunch, and after lunch, we walked along the beach. I guess I was in the mood to be inspired, because I was. Lately inspiration has been hard to find, but not Saturday. Saturday I was in that sappy mood of loving everyone I saw walk by - families, couples, dogs - everyone. "I love you!" I wanted to shout. I was bursting with it.

There was an arts fair on the beach, and while looking at the jewelery, soap, candles, fused glass and various other crafty items, I was overcome with the desire to make something beautiful myself. I was overwhelmed with the desire to just create something - anything - to touch people, to connect with someone, to break through the unbearable mediocrity of day to day to day... That's what it felt like. Looking at that art was like breaking through the mundane for a while. It's not that the art was really genius or anything, it's just that it reminded me that there are people who are doing creative things with their lives. Not everyone shrivels in a cube for a big corporation. People are living.

I loved the mediocre crafts the best - the unschooled paintings, the clumsy sculptures. Art is not perfect, and I loved that these artists - everyone from little old ladies to teenage girls - recognized that and offered up what they had anyway. There's just something so beautiful about that, about offering your imperfections to the world.