The Joy of Straight Shooters

Straight shooter. I love that term. It can translate to dick head, but it can also indicate an incredibly valuable presence in your midst.

Genuine people who make you feel discomfort by raking their fingernails down the blackboard of truth are incredibly valuable.

Dick heads are not without lessons, but require more tolerance and a willingness to seek understanding to access them, and rage must be felt along the way.

My friend Andy is genuine. He attributes at least some of his inability to bullshit people to his autism. Wherever it comes from I bask in it, sometimes accepting it’s worth being late to start work just to get a couple more laps of the dog walk in with him.

He’s also an engineer.

I’ve asked him to help me get a couple of shelves up in the studio. Yeah, go on, laugh. I’m at peace with my shocking lack of practical skills. I can write a great story and I’ll probably sketch his daughter or dog in return for this favour.

This morning he asked me to ask the fella who built my garden studio how thick my plasterboard walls are. Then, about to explain his thinking, his beautiful frankness burst out.

‘Right, this is boring as shit, BUT LISTEN.’ And we both cackled.

The truth is always funniest.

If it’s not something that fires my passion, it takes a gargantuan effort to apply myself, to counter the way I’m wired, which Andy knows well.

This isn’t an insult or cheeky – it’s recognition and respect for what he’s dealing with. It’s why I like to delve into all those frustrations, quirks perceived as flaws, and background with my interviewees and coaching clients. Until you establish common ground and real understanding, creativity will be impeded, challenged, or worse, choked out because it is subject to the chemistry of all things, especially the nature of the relationships through which it must pass to manifest in a final product of any kind.

Best of all, the laugh is still in my belly one hour later, and it’s nice to feel known.