Obsessive and compulsive behavior is dangerous in any context, including pottery. The potter obsessed with a particular finish will adhere narrowly to the techniques known to produce that result, and he or she will fail to experience and acquire other techniques. Meanwhile, the aficionado obsessed with a particular sort of pottery will be blind to all other pottery, no matter how excellent.
Readily apparent in the above-cited symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder in the pottery context is an inward, retrograde orientation. That invites the recommendation of a “forward-looking” stance as a remedy. We need to be wary, however, of this glib prescription. Corporate slogans to the effect of “Create the future” come to mind.
Forward is where we’re headed, whether we like it or not, whether we proceed standing or seated or reclining, and whether we cast our gaze in the direction of our progress or otherwise. The future, meanwhile, is a range on the time axis, ever a stage ahead of where we might be and ever immune to our feeble efforts at artifice.
What we can create is of the present and of the present alone. And therein lies the true cure for potters’ and pottery lovers’ obsessive-compulsive disorder: Abandon arbitrary notions of what you think ought to be and open your eyes to what is.
