{"id":287,"date":"2025-08-10T16:32:22","date_gmt":"2025-08-10T16:32:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/levienlockefeer.nl\/?p=287"},"modified":"2025-11-09T14:58:53","modified_gmt":"2025-11-09T14:58:53","slug":"hello-i-am","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/levienlockefeer.nl\/?p=287","title":{"rendered":"Hello, I am."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

GROWN UP<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When grown-ups used to ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I said:
“First an inventor, then a teacher, maybe a tiger, and also a painter…”
They\u2019d laugh and tell me I\u2019d have to choose just one.
One? That didn\u2019t seem right. So I told them:
“When I grow up, I just want to be happy.”
Now I know\u2014what makes me happy is doing everything.
Everything? Well, at least anything you\u2019ll find on this website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

THE CLOSET<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For a long time, I didn\u2019t talk much about this. Not because it was shameful, but because it was hard to explain. The world seemed to prefer people who were clear, single-minded, easy to pin down. I tried to emulate that kind of person. Not by lying\u2014but by trimming the edges of who I was. Making myself more legible. \u201cCreative,\u201d I\u2019d say. \u201cMultidisciplinary,\u201d maybe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the truth is simpler, and wilder. I love doing everything. Not dabbling\u2014doing<\/em>. Deep diving into one thing, then another. Living fully in each interest until it has saturated and a new one rises. This post is, in a way, a coming out. Not around sexuality, but around identity. I\u2019m coming out as someone who does anything.
There\u2019s a particular fatigue that comes from hiding something others don\u2019t even see as hidden. Like you\u2019re constantly translating yourself into a single sentence when you\u2019re really a book with too many chapters still unwritten.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

HARD TO OWN<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It wasn\u2019t always like this\u2014for the world, I mean. I read a book once that described \u201cseekers,\u201d people who move from one fascination to another like bees between flowers. The book traced how, after World War II, Western culture began to favour specialization. It made sense: economies needed experts, workers for the line, clarity and focus. The idea of being \u201ca jack of all trades\u201d became suspicious, immoral, and even dangerous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it wasn\u2019t always so. In earlier times, generalists were honoured. Leonardo da Vinci (who else) was an artist, scientist, inventor, dreamer. Hildegard of Bingen was a mystic, healer, composer, and abbess. The list is endless. Try asking any of them to fill out a LinkedIn profile and you\u2019ll see how impossible the demand for one clear identity can be.
We\u2019ve inherited a culture that worships depth and treats breadth like a distraction. But what if that\u2019s just a side effect of industrial logic? What if curiosity is not chaos, but a different kind of intelligence?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

IT CLICKED<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The saying we all know goes: \u201cJack of all trades, master of none.\u201d But the full version is rarely quoted:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Jack of all trades, master of none, though oftentimes better than master of one.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s the line that opened a window in me. I realised I wasn\u2019t failing at focus\u2014I was succeeding at breadth. That deep curiosity is not the opposite of commitment. It is<\/em> a kind of commitment\u2014just one with many doors.
There\u2019s a rhythm to it. Something grabs hold of me\u2014a problem, a craft, a form\u2014and I go in fully. I don\u2019t skim. I submerge. And when the tide changes, I come up changed. Not restless\u2014renewed<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

GIVE IT A SHOT <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s a scene I\u2019ve come back to many times:
Someone wants something unusual done\u2014an idea, a blend of forms, a new connection, a tricky problem. They go to a specialist, and the specialist says, \u201cImpossible, it won\u2019t work, I can’t do that.\u201d
Then they go to someone else, a generalist. That person gets the spark and says, \u201cI\u2019ve never done it before, but I\u2019ll give it a shot.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And often, no one asks. No one commissions. I just notice something broken, strange, half-formed\u2014and I begin. I make the tool I need. I follow the crack. I fix what I can\u2019t accept and build what doesn\u2019t exist. It\u2019s not service. It\u2019s instinct. It\u2019s how I stay alive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s the energy I live by. I won\u2019t always get it right, but I\u2019ll try. My work is built on that kind of willingness. Not a promise of perfection, but a promise of presence. Of showing up where new things want to emerge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

FOLLOW ME IF YOU’RE CURIOUS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This website is the unfolding of that life. A many-threaded practice. It won\u2019t always be coherent. It won\u2019t always fit into categories. But it will be alive.
If something in you recognizes this way of being\u2014or if it makes you curious\u2014you\u2019re warmly invited to follow along. Maybe you\u2019re a seeker too. Or maybe you just want to see what one looks like up close.

With presence, but without socials, make sure to subscribe to the newsletter, so you won’t forget about me. I will be respectful of your inbox and your attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

P.S. This text was written in collaboration with Zero (chatGPT). <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A general introduction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":290,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-about-me"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/levienlockefeer.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/levienlockefeer.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/levienlockefeer.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/levienlockefeer.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/levienlockefeer.nl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=287"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/levienlockefeer.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":351,"href":"https:\/\/levienlockefeer.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287\/revisions\/351"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/levienlockefeer.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/levienlockefeer.nl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/levienlockefeer.nl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/levienlockefeer.nl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}