To be "just" is one of those words that is more than what it seems. It is a chameleon--adjective and adverb. Limiting and lonely, but fair. Who else recently has given us enough equity to keep us satisfied? Just just.
The limiting nature of 'just' can be cruel. And in the same vein, completely inaccurate. When we are just 'something'--tying that word to something that the English language has deemed intimate enough to dictate our 'us-ness'--a writer, for instance, we create a mental block. The writer is never 'just' a writer, at least in modern times. The writer is an expert researcher--a curious explorer capable of acquiring the minimum viable knowledge in a subject to make her dangerous. Often the writer is also an SEO specialist, if she writes for the web, capable and willing to hold long conversations that end up as interviews on podcasts. Like 'just', she is a chameleon too.
As creative beings, we need limitations. We crave to be corralled to an area of thought. We are able to take out our sidewalk chalk and go crazy, but not go beyond the gate. Also, not to use the red, as it is off-brand and gets less engagement than blue. That's fine, we say, we like the boundaries and we like them communicated. There is a limitation to our affinity for limitations, however. We like boundaries that frame, not cut into our space. If it is, we become distraught. We feel caged. We blame others for work that no longer works. We feel that we are owed something. That it is only fair. The thing of it, though, is that even though we are told we deserve equity, that we should not expect it to be fair. Either way, it ought to be accepted. Accepted as just, or not. It doesn't mean we stop or we use it as a crutch. A crutch can be a tool and we have the power to accept this just as is.